Fans of iconic wildlife daredevil Steve Irwin yesterday began camping out to snap up tickets for the "Crocodile Hunter's" memorial service, 24 hours before they go on sale.
Armed with lawn chairs, blankets and plenty of reading material, admirers of the Australian TV star, who was killed in a stingray attack on Sept. 4, set up camp on a pavement outside a ticket office in the city of Brisbane more than 24 hours before seats for the event go on sale.
"I think the stingray didn't know him," said 10-year-old Kiamba Rogers who began lining up outside a ticket sales office early in the morning along with her 17-year-old sister, Tahmea.
"If it knew him, it wouldn't have done it because everybody loves him," Kiamba said, amid a national outpouring of grief over the death of one of Australia's best-known sons.
Thousands of Irwin fans will be able to attend his public memorial service to be held next Wednesday at the 5,500-seater "Crocoseum" in his beloved Australia Zoo wildlife park in northeastern Queensland if they make a donation to his wildlife charity.
Irwin's widow Terri, the couple's eight-year-old daughter Bindi and Irwin's father Bob Irwin will speak at the globally-televised service that is billed as a celebration of Irwin's life.
Some 3,000 tickets will become available to the public in Brisbane, in the northern Queensland town of Maroochydore and at Australia Zoo at 9:00am today.
Beauty therapist, Melissa Power, 34, was at the head of one of the queues in Brisbane after she began her ticket vigil at 7.30am yesterday to make sure she gets to "say goodbye and just to celebrate his life."
"I just love him because he's Steve. He lived for conservation, his family, and I was just shocked and devastated by the news," she said.
Kiamba Rogers' sister Tahmea said she had written a song for Irwin that she hoped to give to his widow.
"I had my family singing it around the house ... `I need you, I love you, I just can't live without you,'" she said.
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