Washington, Apr 20 (ANI): Russell Crowe is fighting to stop Australian officials from strip mining in late pal Steve Irwin’s wildlife reserve in Queensland.

After the death of the ‘Crocodile Hunter’ 2006, politicians donated over 130,000 hectares of wilderness to conservationists as a tribute.

However, the new Aussie government is planning to permit a local aluminium company for mining a portion of the Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve.

Thus, Crowe is leaving no stone unturned to make officials change their decision.

“That site actually operates as a water filter and there are some species of plants and animals that don’t really appear in other places, and the river the water runs into, the Wenlock River, has the largest bio-diversity range of any freshwater river in the country - it has things like saw-toothed sharks and estuarine crocodiles,” Contactmusic quoted Crowe as saying.

He added: “He’s (Irwin) not here to stand up for himself and I just feel, as his friend, that we can’t do that… I made an offer to the environmental minister to have a talk about it but he hasn’t bothered to respond.”

Crowe is appearing on chat shows to promote new film ‘State of Play’, and is also urging his and Irwin’s fans to sign an online petition on the Australia Zoo’s website.

Appearing on The Late Show with David Letterman in America on April 17, Crowe rallied support, saying, “If any of you were ever touched by Steve’s attitude towards conservation… and making conservation an important subject for us to discuss… go to that website and sign up on that petition because that man deserves to be honoured and respected, whether he’s alive or not. He was a fantastic person.”

The actor has claimed that the ‘Save Steve’s Place’ petition already boasts 118,000 signatures. (ANI)