Kathy Brown, Marlboro Man (PEOPLE 2025)

This is Doug, better known as Marlboro Man, a real cowboy from the Snowy Mountains now living in Marian Grove retirement village at Sawtell, my place of work where i'm lucky enough to meet amazing people like this one. Doug has been a stockman and brilliant horseman all of his life breaking in many horses and working hard. He has survived some very close calls with horses and beasts during his life. He and his wife Marie have raised a family, lost a son in the mines, and are now living the quiet life away from properties which they do miss. Doug has been fighting blood cancer but still spends his days hand making stock whips and leather belts out of kangaroo hide at the front of his unit. He has many hats, mainly Akubras, and on the day i took this photo he had his old worn out favourite on.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.