He's worn many hats in his days, but Billy Lowery wishes he wore more hats more often.

Key points: Billy Lowery has been a ringer, a bushman, a landscaper, and a world-record-holding mudcrab-tying champion

Billy Lowery has been a ringer, a bushman, a landscaper, and a world-record-holding mudcrab-tying champion He is a casino security guard, but he mostly tries to guard poolside-punters from the sun

He is a casino security guard, but he mostly tries to guard poolside-punters from the sun He's got the scars, the stories, and the suncream to stop the next generation getting skin cancer

He's been dubbed "Billy the Sunscreen Cowboy" for the extra mile he goes to in his weekend job as a security guard at Darwin's casino.

If you're catching a few rays by the pool, there's a chance you'll be silhouetted by Billy— wearing his bush hat and elastic-sided boots — and he'll persuade you to slip, slop, slap.

But he draws the line at rubbing it into your skin.

He is also a landscape gardener; but in his past lives, he has been a commercial fisherman, a cowboy, a buffalo hunter, and a world barefoot mud crab-tying champion — a title which has made him a household name in Darwin.

But the 59-year-old's outdoor Territory lifestyle has left its scars.

"I've had all the skin cancers," he said.

"Heaps. Some cut out of my face — and my arms.

"When I was fishing with my dad, we used to put baby oil on to get a tan. Now I regret that."

Former bushman, ringer, and world barefoot-mud crab-tying champion Billy Lowery with skin care products at his weekend workplace. ( ABC Radio Darwin: Conor Byrne )

No apologies for pressure

Mr Lowery tells patrons about his dad's experience with stage four melanoma.

"I don't think dad ever wore sunscreen in his life," he said.

"Everybody needs to use this stuff.

"When you see your dad or your mum, or whoever it may be in your family, getting (skin cancer) they need to be looked after.

"They didn't know about it back then.

"But now we know about it and it's our job to educate people so they don't end up like us."

Mr Lowery makes no apologies for pressuring patrons to cream up on his watch.

"I met a bloke in the pool who wouldn't put it on. He said 'ah nah, I don't need it'.

"I said you're looking pretty red, brus.

"I told him about my dad and then he took the sunscreen."

Former bushman, ringer, and world barefoot-mudcrab-tying champion Billy Lowery sitting beside the pool at Mindil Beach Casino in Darwin ( ABC Radio Darwin: Conor Byrne )

Champion barfeoot mud crab tying

For 13 years, Mr Lowery was the undefeated world barefoot mud crab tying champion.

He held the world record of 22.6 seconds.

The championships were held annually at Lims Hotel in Rapid Creek — now called the Beachfront — until the 1990s.

Kevin Bloody Wilson famously told the NT News that Lims was "the only place in Darwin you had to wipe your feet on the way out".

His brother Fred "Froggy" Lowery always finished second. Froggy is still in town, working in the bitumen trade.

And in the 1994 championships, the brothers were paid by the organisers not to enter, so other competitors had a chance to win.

Mud crabs are big business for the NT, are a target for poachers, but catches have been dwindling, and climate change has been blamed.

Billy Lowry at the barefoot mudcrab tying contest at Lims Hotel in Darwin in 1983 ( NT ARCHIVES )

Life-changing

An accident in a bull-catching vehicle at Adelaide River in 1984 changed mr Lowery's life.

He was on his way to go buffalo shooting at Marrakai.

He broke his legs, hip, pelvis, and got head injuries.

"We had seatbelts but nobody wore them," he said.

"I've been put back together a couple of times but it's in your heart and your mind if you're going to keep going.

"When I woke up in hospital I said: 'That's it. I'm going to live every second, every minute, every day of my life to the fullest'.

And while working at Royal Darwin Hospital as a security guard in 2012, he dragged an injured colleague away from a high-voltage electrical substation which had just exploded, before returning to extinguish the blaze.

He had facial burns, but appeared at work at 8am the next morning ready to serve, much to everyone's surprise.

He has been part of a NT Government tourism delegation to Hong Kong World Expo in 1989 where he exhibited mud crab tying.

Barefoot mudrab-tying world champion and record holder Billy Lowery from Humpty Doo NT gives a demonstration at the Hong Kong World Expo in October 1989. ( SUPPLIED: Library & Archives NT )

Why mud crab tying?

Tying mud crabs is an essential skill for fishos in the Northern Territory.

Fisho Keith Cheater told the NT Archives about a time when a carton of mud crabs for export collapsed.

"There were mud crabs running everywhere at the airport."

"And I had to pick them up. Nobody would come near me.

"I had to pick the lot up.

"I got one sliced finger out of it."

But people should be less afraid of crabs and take Mr Lowery's advice and be more worried about the sun.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare says skin cancer accounts for the largest number of cancers diagnosed in Australia each year — and its rising.

Its latest statistics estimate about 13,000 new cases of melanoma annually.