ON THEIR last holiday together before Steve Irwin's sudden death in September last year, Steve told his wife Terri how frustrated he was that his message about animal conservation was falling on deaf ears.
"We were talking about some of his frustrations with crocodile research and proving in the academic world why crocodiles were worth being protected," Terri recalls.
"It can be frustrating when policies are being written to harvest eggs or safari hunt crocs and it is just a constant battle. Steve was feeling a bit frustrated and I said it very tongue in cheek, but I look back at it...it was so strange.
"I said that 'it seems like you'll be appreciated and your work will be understood - but probably not until you are six feet under'."
Little more than a month later, Steve was killed by a stringray and people from around the world opened up their hearts and minds to his cause.
Terri says it is such a shame that Steve never understood the real impact he had made on the world.
"He didn't have that sense of being a big deal. But that is part of what made him special - he never big-noted himself. He always wanted his work, his wildlife and what he stood for to take centre stage."
Last week, Terri launched My Steve, a book about the man behind the khaki and all he stood for.
"It is not so much about remembering Steve, as remembering what he stood for - that would have made him happy," she said.
Launching the book at Borders Chadstone last week, Terri says it is about the impact Steve had on other people's lives.
"I'm always amazed at how sincere and emotional people are about my loss and it is quite unexpected the love and support and prayers I have gotten from people.
"So for me it just reiterates how important the project was to do the book, just to give something back to everyone who has been there for my family when we needed them."
Terri says that while she was originally against the prospect of writing the book, she changed her mind after she realised that others were also struggling to come to terms with Steve's death.
"Not long after losing Steve, I did an interview in Australia and the response was quite surprising.
"People would come up to me in the street and say `thank you for talking about Steve, it really helped my family', and I was so surprised.
"I thought well, this isn't just my grief journey, and maybe if I can tell people who Steve really was and what our life was like, it would somehow help - and that was my motivation."
Terri says writing the book was an emotional roller-coaster, forcing her to relive some of the couple's happiest moments while still coming to terms with her grief.
"When I worked on the book I made sure the kids were with someone, because I would often have to sit down for a minute and have a good cry.
"But now I can look at it and I'm starting to be able to smile at the funny, embarrassing, silly times and not just wish I can have more of them."
Terri based the book on excerpts from her diary which she kept during her married life.
"For me, by the time I was finished the book, it was a 900-page effort," she said
"But I went through again and whittled it down, but I'm glad my kids are going to have the whole 900 pages."
Terri says she is is determined to continue the Steve Irwin legacy.
"I know myself how much I wish Steve was here and how much I miss him and how incredibly difficult it is, and yet it wouldn't honour everything he worked so hard for just to fall in a heap.
"We are living and working for a better world and we need to do that for all of our children and grandchildren and the future of the planet."
Terri says she has been overwhelmed with how much they have managed to achieve in the past year.
"I brought a whale watching boat and we've brought more than 320,000 acres of conservation property and we are adding accommodation on an extra 500 acres at Australia Zoo.
"We've launched Crikey magazine into the newsagents, and Bindy's finished Bindy: The Jungle Girl series and we are working on her new clothing range, so it has been huge."
But Terri says her main focus is putting an end to whaling.
"Steve always said about whaling that some day we would read about whaling in history the way we read about slavery and cannibalism.
"That we will read about it and say, 'Oh my God, I cannot believe that something like that happened in our human history'. And he really believed that.
"So I really want to strive to help bring that to fruition, so we can see that as something that marred our past."
Terri says her goal was achievable if everyone worked together.
"We need to do three things - we need to get whales into people's hearts, we need to do the bona fide research to help protect and preserve them and then we've got to get out there and stop the atrocities that are going on."
Last week, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Organisation renamed one of its whale protest ships in honour of Steve Irwin.
The ship will be used to intervene against illegal whaling actions by Japanese whaling fleets.
"I have two kids - I can't go out there. I can't go sail the high seas and stop the Japanese whalers, but Paul Watson can do it and I can help."
My Steve is available now from Borders bookstores.
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