Australian Man Wins Lottery Jackpot After Bushfires Burn Uninsured Home to Ground: 'This Is a Miracle'
An Australian family plans to rebuild their home that was destroyed in the bushfires using the money they just won in Australia’s Gold Lotto.
The timing of winning the lottery could not be better for an Australian man and his family, possibly the country’s newest millionaires.
The man from Mount Cotton in Redland, south of Brisbane, has chosen to remain anonymous, but was emotional about the big win, Australia’s ABC News reported.
The man won $1 million Australian dollars on Jan. 8 in the “Gold Lotto” drawing, which he said he will use to rebuild his family home in New South Wales that was devastated in the widespread bushfires that have plagued the country for months.
The man was initially in shock after learning about the win, asking The Lott representative who called him, “Am I seeing things? Is this real?”
As the reality sunk in, the man realized he would now have enough money to rebuild the home that was so sentimental to his family.
Today was one of those days in the office when a Winners story came through that seemed to energise the entire building…https://t.co/tEvUBGpZq7
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“My family just lost their home in the bushfires in northern New South Wales and it wasn’t insured, so thank you very much,” he said. “This is amazing. Wow. This is so good.”
The man credited his wife’s ‘special’ numbers for the win, saying, “The entry was marked with her special numbers and now they’ve delivered in a big way.”
He was eager to get home to his wife to give her “a big kiss and a cuddle!”
With all the loss that Australian residents have absorbed as of late, the man said he sees the win as a symbol of new and better things to come.
“This is a miracle,” he said of the win, adding that the timing was “incredible.”
When he laid eyes on his razed home for the first time, the man said “All that was left of the home was a few charred teacups,” according to The New York Post.
The winner told Lauren Cooney from The Lott that the property had been “very sentimental and special to them,” according to ABC News.
Uncertain of how to handle the future of the property before the big win, now the man and his family can move forward with a rebuild when the timing is right.
“We didn’t know if we would ever be able to rebuild but now we definitely can! This is amazing. I can’t get over it,” he said.
The $1 million prize money is worth approximately $690,000 in U.S. dollars.
“He said he couldn’t have imagined more impeccable timing which meant that he could use his prize to rebuild their family home,” Cooney said.
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