MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Bindi Irwin, daughter of the late ‘Crocodile Hunter’ Steve Irwin, got married on Wednesday, Australian media said, in an event that spurred online protest as it came just hours before a ban on ceremonies with more than five people took effect.
Australian adventurer Steve Irwin holds his four-year-old daughter Bindi aloft as his wife Terri looks on during the premiere of the adventure comedy motion picture “The Crocodile Hunter – Collision Course” at the Cinerama Dome in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles June 29, 2002. REUTERS/Jim Ruymen
The images were broadcast less than 24 hours after Prime Minister Scott Morrison imposed a limit of just five people at weddings – the couple, a celebrant and two witnesses – from Wednesday midnight, to rein in the spread of a coronavirus.
Video gave a fleeting glimpse of a wedding dress from under a huddle of umbrellas at the family’s Australia Zoo in northeastern Queensland state and an outdoor area surrounded by flower arches and palm trees, Australian Broadcasting Corp said.
“How many people will get #COVID-19 from this wedding?” one Australian user of social media, Vivian Harris, asked on Twitter, referring to the disease spread by the virus.
“Think about the purpose, not the legalities. Virus doesn’t care which side of midnight it is.”
Another Twitter user, with the handle Briar Rose 83, said, “Cannot believe Bindi Irwin had her wedding today. What a terrible and selfish role model she is. So many people are at risk. Shame shame shame.”
Australia Zoo did not immediately reply to an email query after business hours.
Irwin, 21, got engaged last July to her American boyfriend Chandler Powell, who works at the zoo, ABC said.
Late on Tuesday, Irwin posted a photo of herself with her father and said on social media, “Thank you for being my guiding light. You’re always with me.”
On March 11, she had posted a photo of herself with Powell and her brother, Robert, after choosing flowers for her bridal bouquet.
Bindi Irwin leapt to fame as a child when her quirky conservationist father, whose television programmes were popular around the world, died in 2006, after a stingray’s barb pierced his heart while he was filming off the Great Barrier Reef.
She won reality show Dancing with the Stars in the United States in 2015, when she was 17.
Reporting by Sonali Paul; Editing by Clarence Fernandez