When I was a kid, one of my favourite pastimes was imagining all the things I’d buy when (not if) I won the lottery: a house with a bouncy castle room, a helicopter, an island in the Pacific where I’d keep a pod of friendly dolphins. Now, of course, my list consists solely of “a single room shack less than an hour’s drive from one of Australia‘s capitals”. A girl can dream.
You and I might have missed out on living our Scrooge McDuck pool-of-money fantasies, but not so a farmer from the far north Queensland town of Mareeba. He’s won a $15 million first division Oz Lotto prize, and he knows exactly what he’s going to spend it on.
The man in his 50s, who is (probably wisely) choosing to stay anonymous, told the Cairns Post:
“I’ll be able help my kids and my family and buy a house for starters. We might go for a little cruise on holiday or something like that.“I really get into my cars too, so now I can buy the ute I always dreamt of.“
I can honestly say that no other reference to buying a ute has ever made me feel quite so much vicarious joy. I am really, genuinely thrilled for this farmer to buy his dream ute.
Incidentally, the newsagent where he purchased his winning ticket, Piagno’s News on Byrnes Street in Mareeba, has sold five other division-one winning tickets. A trip up north might turn out to be a sound investment in realising those island-owning dreams.
Source: Cairns Post.
Image: Fox.
