Top 10 biggest lottery wins in Australian history

As three more Aussies joined the multi-millionaire lottery club by winning a share of the $160m Powerball, we take a look at the 10 biggest wins in Australian lotto history.

Over the years, several lucky Australians have seen their wildest dreams come true thanks to a mega lotto win.

The biggest lottery jackpot ever in Australian history was drawn on October 27 with three lucky Aussies winning a share of the $160m Powerball draw.

But they’re not the only ones who have had big wins over the years.

In July 2022, an Adelaide woman discovered she was one of four division one X Lotto winners, entitling her to a whopping $1.3m in prizemoney.

The win was extra shocking because, at first, she initially thought she’d only one $1000.

“I didn’t have my glasses on when I first looked at my ticket yesterday morning. I thought, ‘oh, hang on a minute, I’ve won $1000’. I was so excited. But then I saw it was $1.3m,” the Christie Downs woman said.

Of course, $1.3m is a life-changing amount of money, and not to be sneezed at, but it doesn’t come close to the list of Australia’s biggest lotto wins.

Here’s a look at the 10 biggest.

10. 2022: VIC, NSW AND WA WINNERS SHARE POWERBALL $160M WIN ($53M EACH)

It was Australia’s biggest ever lottery jackpot where Powerball peaked at $160 million on October 27, 2022.

Each of the three division one winning entries — from Victoria, NSW and Western Australia — will take home just over $53m.

There have been some big lottery wins in Australia over the years. Picture: Supplied

A blue-collar worker from Clyde shed tears of joy when lottery officials called him to say he was the only winner in Victoria.

“Oh my god, oh my god. I can’t believe this,” he cried down the phone.

“Holy sh*t. Far out. I’m absolutely speechless. I never thought I’d get this phone call. This has changed my life.”

Lottery officials were initally unable to find the NSW winner as an unregistered ticket was bought from an outlet in Penrith in Sydney’s west but then a Penrith dad came foward.

“Holy sh*t! This is amazing!” he told after an official from The Lott.

“I told my family, ‘I think I might have won division one,’ but no one believed me.

“Tell you what, they believe me now.”

Little is known about the winner in WA.

9. 2022: KALGOORLIE, WA: POWERBALL $63M/COFFS HARBOUR, NSW - POWERBALL $63M

The WA goldfields town of Kalgoorlie is no stranger to folks becoming suddenly wealthy. It happened again in February, when 250 members of a local lotto syndicate struck gold, winning the $63m division one prize in Powerball.

Each member of the syndicate forked out $100 to stake a claim in the $25,000 ticket and each pocketed about $250,000 for their investment.

Members of the syndicate included a foster mum who was working two jobs just to make ends meet and a couple with a travel agency, whose business was crippled by Covid.

As PerthNow reported, one winner, Nardia, told Perth’s radio 6PR the win would change the lives of the members of the syndicate - some of whom were hardworking battlers.

“There’s just people from all different walks of life that are in this syndicate,” she said.

“There are some people that have had hard times with their businesses because of Covid.

“There is just going to be so many feel good stories out of it.”

Powerball reached a massive $160 million jackpot for the first time in Australia’s lottery history.

In another Powerball win, a middle-aged man from Coffs Harbour, a regular lotto player, didn’t registered his entry, meaning lottery officials couldn’t contact him the night of the draw.

He discovered he was $63m richer the next day when he scanned his entry on the lotto app.

The man told The Lott the win was “a dream come true”.

“Oh mate, it’s unbelievable,”, he said.

“I’ve started a wish list already. Straight up, a red sports car, a new house, holidays, you name it.

“I also really want to look after my family.

“It’s funny as I’ve been watching the news all morning, and they were saying someone’s won Powerball in Coffs Harbour. I’m sitting here thinking, ‘I can’t believe that winner is me’.”

8. 2013: GOLD COAST, QLD - OZ LOTTO $70M

In 2013, a group of 10 girlfriends decided to invest the money they had leftover from a lunch out together in an Oz Lotto ticket.

As the Courier Mail reported, the women regularly played social tennis as the Tennis Academy in Runaway Bay - where the winning ticket was purchased.

“I told everyone to throw in some loose change and I’ll buy a lotto ticket in a big draw before Christmas,” the syndicate leader said.

When she noticed the prize pool had jackpotted to $70m, the woman bought a “QuickPick” entry. And what do you know? All their Christmases arrived at once.

“I checked the ticket this morning and when I realised we’d won I just sat there shaking like a leaf,” she said.

The woman said she wasn’t sure what her friends planned to do with their share of the winnings, but her husband had already put in an order for a racehorse.

“But I said it’s not your prize,” she joked.

7. 2016: HARVEY BAY, QLD - POWERBALL $70M

The power of positive thinking or just incredible luck?

In 2016, a Hervey Bay woman told her husband she’d decided to win the lotto that year.

“It was my 2016 resolution to bring more positivity to my life,” the Courier Mail reported.

Well, it worked. The couple snagged the entire $70m Powerball jackpot but said they’d never counted themselves as lucky before their mega win.

“The best thing we’ve ever won is the old chook raffle,” the couple said.

Asked how they planned to spend the money, the couple said their winnings wouldn’t be wasted.

“We’ll be helping our family and giving to a few charities close to our hearts,” they said.

“We haven’t done much travel in our lives, but now we’re off! You won’t see us around here for long. We’ll just have to wait until Europe and the USA warm up a bit.

“There’s also a dream car on the horizon which was always out of reach until now.”

The husband said the pair had always been mindful of money but could now afford not to watch every penny.

“I can toss out all those specials catalogues,” he said.

6. 2020: PORT MACQUARIE, NSW - POWERBALL $80M

Money isn’t everything, but imagine if you had $80m in the bank to ease your worries when Covid struck in 2020?

That’s exactly what happened to this retiree from Port Macquarie who picked up the entire $80m Powerball jacket in March, 2020, just as the seriousness of the mysterious virus was starting to become clearer.

The man, who had only recently retired, said the win was “the best news I’ve ever received”.

“I think I feel some tears coming on,” he said.

“With so much going on in the world right now. I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed.”

He said his family had gone through a “rough trot” in recent years, battling drought and bushfires.

“This is going to make my family’s life so much easier.”

And for himself? A new TV.

“I’ve always wanted a satellite TV to get better TV stations.”

5. 2020: DROMANA, VIC - POWERBALL $80M

A winning lotto ticket is so hard to come by you’d do anything to keep yours safe, right?

When a Mornington Peninsula woman checked her lotto app in 2020 and discovered she and her husband had reeled in the big one, she did the only logical thing — she took the ticket to bed.

“I’ve been safeguarding that ticket ever since. The ticket came to bed with me last night.”

The couple’s $80m Powerball jackpot win, just a few months into the start of the Covid pandemic, was the third biggest lotto win in Australia at the time and the biggest ever in Victoria.

The woman said she and her husband were gobsmacked when she checked her ticket and discovered their numbers had come in.

A majority of the big wins played Powerball.

“I was sitting there and I had bought two tickets with my husband, and I said ‘I haven’t checked those tickets yet’,” she said.

“When I scanned the first one on my phone, it said ‘no win’. I did the next one, and there was confetti all over my phone.

“I said ‘I think I’ve won something’. So other members of the family started scanning the ticket and nothing was sinking in. I just didn’t believe it.

“We were stunned, excited, in disbelief, surreal, just everything. I won’t forget that moment.”

The woman said she and her husband would look to spend some of the money on a new house and holidays but would first be focusing on getting through the pandemic safely.

“Our health is really important, and we want to concentrate on getting through this period,” she said.

“When it passes, we’ll be ready to enjoy the prize. It gives us enormous peace of mind and freedom. There’s lots to worry about at the moment, but we don’t need to worry about money any more.”

4. 2021: NORTH MELBOURNE, VIC - POWERBALL $80M

This mega lotto win couldn’t have come at a better time for the middle-aged North Melbourne dad who scooped the prize.

The man had been working as a cleaner to put food on the table after losing his job during one of Melbourne’s many Covid lockdowns.

“Like for so many people, these lockdowns have been really tough for our family,” he said.

“But I’ve always said, you’ve just gotta keep trying. Now, look what’s happened”

The man said after he’d eased the financial pressures on himself, he was planning to use his winnings to help his family.

“I am certainly going to pay off the mortgage and the other bills we have to begin with.

“We’re going to set up our kids for life.”

3. 2021: PERTH, WA - POWERBALL $80M

How do you turn $5 into $1.4m?

You join your friends in a share in a Powerball ticket then cross your fingers. That’s what the 55 women in this WA lotto syndicate did in December, 2021 and boy did it pay off.

The women, members of Curves ladies-only gym in the Perth suburb of Beldon, reeled in the division one Powerball jackpot to the tune of $80m or about $1.4m each, if divided evenly.

The woman who organised the syndicate said many of the winners were “real Aussie battlers” and visited the gym as an outlet from their daily problems.

“We’re a real community and this is going to be life-changing for every single one of us,” she said.

She said some of the members of the winning syndicate were at a Christmas function when one of their husbands called to let them know they’d struck it rich.

“I called over to the waiter and asked for their finest bottle of champagne.”

2. 2019: CHATSWOOD, NSW - LUCKY LOTTERIES MEGA JACKPOT $96M

“Holy sh*t. Jesus Christ. I’m at work at the moment, so I wasn’t expecting this phone call.”

That was the wholly relatable response of a Sydney dad when he picked up the phone in the middle of his office job to receive the news he was now the proud custodian of $96m - the second biggest individual lotto win in Australian history.

“I’m shaking. I’m just waiting for someone to tell me I’m being punked,” he said.

“I can’t wait to call my wife and tell her I have won. I don’t think she’ll believe me. I’m a bit of a prankster so she’ll probably think I’m pulling a fast one.”

The man said the win would change his life “immeasurably”.

“I’m going to look after my kids and make sure they are set up for the future.

“Then I am going to find the most outrageous holiday I can think of to take myself on.”

As for that office job ….

“It’s unlikely that I am going to finish the day out at work. I’m pretty sure I’ll quit. My endless lunchbreak starts now.”

1. 2019: SYDNEY, NSW - POWERBALL, $107M

2019 was clearly a very lucky year, because it was also the year a Sydney nurse became Australia’s biggest ever individual lotto prize winner when she took home a staggering $107m in the Powerball.

Speaking in 2021, two years after her record-breaking win, the mum, aged in her 40s said the money had allowed her to buy a “lovely house” that would be in the family for generations to come.

It also meant she could afford small luxuries day to day without thinking twice about it.

“Being able to buy fresh flowers is a luxury,” she said.

“It’s little things like that, that I don’t have to feel guilty about.

“I can buy a nicer bottle of wine now after celebrating with a cheap bottle of chardonnay.”

And despite her extraordinary windfall, the woman went about her business the day after her win and continues to work her job.

“I got up the next morning and I took the kids to school. I was really thrilled at how lovely people were. When I looked at news reports, no one was really jealous or spiteful.

“I continue to work because people need me to be the person I always was.

“I really want Australia to know that our philosophy was always to do a lot of good work with this prize.

“Paying it forward is really important to us.

“If you change one person’s life, you have the potential to change the whole community.”

Originally published as Top 10 biggest lottery wins in Australian history