BEERWAH, Australia — Sharyn Wade remembers exactly where she was last September 4 when she heard that Steve "Crocodile Hunter" Irwin had died when his heart was pierced by a stingray's barb while snorkeling.

A zoo volunteer in the southern city of Melbourne, she was traveling home on a train when her sister called her with the bad news.

"When I was talking, people stopped and listened in, and it went quite quiet on the entire carriage," Wade said yesterday on the first anniversary of Irwin's death. "Nobody could really believe what they were hearing."

Wade flew 1,200 miles from her home to Australia Zoo, the Irwin family owned complex that helped take the Crocodile Hunter from a young, gawky reptile park owner to conservationist and zany worldwide television star.

Like many others at the park yesterday, Wade didn't want to be anywhere else on the anniversary of his death.

Wade and her 11-year-old nephew, Ben, and a friend went to the zoo an hour before the gates opened. Dozens of floral wreaths, plants and makeshift signs had been placed at the front of the zoo, and hundreds of more were expected throughout the day.

"We'll probably just walk around and reflect and feel," Wade said. "We've never been to the zoo before, but we wanted to be here today. We've been calling it our pilgrimage."

A year ago, the same location garnered thousands of flowers that eventually spilled over into the zoo itself in an unprecedented outpouring of grief following Irwin's death on the Great Barrier Reef in northern Australia.

The Irwin family said it would have a low-key day yesterday and asked for privacy.

Terri Irwin, the star's wife, said she planned to spend the day with her daughter Bindi, nine, who has become a major celebrity in the past year with a new television show and fashion range, and son Bob, three. Reports suggested they were in the United States yesterday.

Terri Irwin has announced on the zoo's web site that she's nominated November 15 as a commemorative day in honour of her late husband, and she's suggesting that everyone wears Irwin's trademark khaki shirts on the day. That date was chosen in to honour Irwin's favourite giant Galapagos tortoise, Harriet, who was born on that date and died earlier this year at the age of 176.