Lachlan Rofe, a reality television contestant who later lived as a reclusive cattle farmer near Camden in New South Wales, has died suddenly at the age of 47, police and loved ones said. Emergency services were called to a home in Razorback where a man was found unresponsive; ambulance paramedics performed CPR but were unable to revive him, a police statement said. Investigations into the circumstances of his death are ongoing.

Rofe, who first rose to public attention on Channel Nine’s debut season of Married At First Sight in 2015 and appeared on Farmer Wants a Wife in 2016, had retreated from the national spotlight in recent years and was living on a property in Cawdor. He often posted updates from his rural life to social media, showing a markedly different appearance from his television days and sharing moments such as feeding emus on his porch.

Friends and family confirmed Rofe's death on social media, prompting a stream of tributes from former co-stars and followers. Ryan Donnelly, a groom on Married At First Sight, wrote that the news was “tragic” and expressed sadness at losing a local so young. Other messages described Rofe as a local identity who loved his farm and offered condolences to his family.

A series of posts on Rofe’s Facebook page in recent months illustrated his rural lifestyle and occasional online eccentricity. In July he shared a video showing himself with long hair feeding emus pieces of chicken from a box of fast food. He also reposted a 2019 memory celebrating negative results from drug tests and in February uploaded a photograph of himself with a black eye, saying he had no idea how it happened.

Rofe, who also used the surname McAleer, had attracted media attention both during and after his television appearances. In 2017 he was found guilty at a local court of assaulting his then-girlfriend, Casey Williams, in front of her two-year-old daughter after a night of heavy drinking. He was placed on a 12-month good-behaviour bond. That conviction was later overturned by a magistrate on appeal, and Rofe said at the time he had sought to clear his name.

The public fallout from the incident left him feeling exposed, and he told reporters he felt unsafe approaching women in public in the aftermath. He was linked at various times to fellow reality contestants including Belinda Reid, a Farmer Wants a Wife contestant, and Natalie Cepenuik. Rofe and Reid appeared to be together during filming but split within a day of the show’s finale, with Rofe citing distance as a factor.

During his time away from television, Rofe also faced scrutiny over his family property. In 2016 authorities examined the land for alleged illegal tree clearing; Rofe denied wrongdoing, saying the clearing had complied with legislation.

The New South Wales Police Department urged anyone with information about the circumstances of Rofe’s death to contact Camden Police or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. No further details on the cause of death have been released.

Rofe’s television appearances in the mid-2010s had made him a recognizable figure in Australian reality television, but in later years his public profile was defined more by his life on the land than by his earlier celebrity. His sudden death has renewed attention on both his television career and his subsequent life as a cattle farmer.