SYDNEY, Australia — On television sets he was a relaxed, cheerful man with an engaging smile. The star of a top-rated gardening and lifestyle show, he was an Australian television legend, lauded in the 1990s and considered one of the most powerful men in the country’s entertainment industry.

But this week reports emerged that the once-beloved Don Burke could be a very different man behind closed doors. He is now at the center of a national reckoning over sexual harassment in the workplace, after being publicly accused of harassing, assaulting and bullying women during his professional heyday.

“The Harvey Weinstein saga in Hollywood started a witch hunt,” Mr. Burke said, vehemently denying the allegations and citing the cascade of sexual harassment revelations touched off by inquiries into the American film mogul’s treatment of women.

Mr. Burke, 70, is the first high-profile figure in Australia to be shamed publicly in the furor set off by the Weinstein story. Australians say the conversation in the United States has emboldened women halfway around the world to come forward.