Somewhere between a Cairns servo and a Sydney newsagent, this year’s luckiest Australians found out life can change with a single ticket.
Australia’s lottery winners have just had their year laid bare, and the numbers are staggering. According to The Lott, 492 division one prizes were won across the country in FY26, handing out more than $1.53 billion between 1 July 2025 and 30 June 2026.
Victoria took out the most wins nationally, with 138 division one prizes worth over $427 million. New South Wales pipped it for total prize money though, banking $452.8 million thanks to a run of big jackpots, including a $60 million Powerball win in Queanbeyan.
The single biggest prize of the year went to a retired man from Altona in Victoria, who scooped an $80 million Powerball jackpot, the largest individual win recorded anywhere in the country during FY26.
New South Wales also created the most new millionaires, 91 in total, followed by Victoria (82), Queensland (66) and Western Australia (65).
Certain postcodes proved particularly lucky. Cairns and Earlville’s 4870 sold four division one winning entries in Queensland, matched by Melbourne’s CBD postcode of 3000. In Western Australia, Morley and Australind outlets each sold three winning tickets, while eleven NSW postcodes, spanning Sydney’s CBD to Denman in the Upper Hunter, each produced two division one wins.
Regionally, Melbourne’s southeast and Sydney’s central and northern suburbs saw the most winning entries, while the Gold Coast led Queensland with 13 division one wins worth $28.1 million.
Even the smaller states had big moments. The ACT’s biggest win was a $40 million Powerball prize scooped by a Woden man, while an Alice Springs resident picked up the Northern Territory’s biggest ever lottery win, $25 million, in October 2025.
“Every draw is entirely random, and every entry has its own chance of winning, but the data does show some postcodes enjoyed a particularly memorable run of division one success,” The Lott spokesperson Matt Hart said.
