Robert Irwin , zoo director in Australia Born 1939-06-08 in Australia . Robert Irwin (born 8 June 1939) is an Australian naturalist, animal conservationist, former zookeeper, and a pioneering herpetologist who is also famous for his Conservation and husbandry work with apex predators and reptiles. He is the founder of the Queensland Reptile and Fauna Park (now known as Australia Zoo). Robert Irwin was born in Melbourne, Victoria. He was a successful plumber from Melbourne who, in addition, had also spent time building sheds and houses. Irwin married Lyn Hakainsson, a maternity nurse who was killed in a car accident in 2000. Together, they had three children, a daughter, Joy, son Steve, and a second daughter, Mandy. While Irwin made a living as a plumber, and Lyn as a maternity nurse, the family's consuming passion was rescuing and rehabilitating local wildlife. Irwin's career in animal Conservation began in 1970, when Irwin moved his family from Essendon, located north west of Melbourne, to Queensland. He had decided to turn his love for animals from a hobby into a career and purchased 4 acres (16,000 m2) of land to construct a wildlife refuge. As a builder, Irwin personally turned his hand to building and designing the Beerwah Reptile Park. Irwin dedicated so much time to constructing the Reptile Park and the enclosures that, for the first years in their new life of exhibiting native fauna, the Irwins lived in an old RV caravan. Irwin would build a shed, and then the Irwin house, which the Irwin family and Bob Irwin lived in until Bob gave the wildlife park to his son Steve. On 2 March 2008, it was announced that Bob Irwin had resigned from Australia Zoo (the renamed Beerwah Reptile and Fauna Park) in order to "keep his son's dream alive". Mother Terri Irwin, Bindi Irwin, Robert Irwin, and their grandfather Bob Irwin who founded Australia Zoo.
