Been there, got the tee-shirt! BY LLOYD GORMAN
MOST PEOPLE DREAM OF WINNING THE LOTTO, BUT ONLY A LUCKY FEW EVER EXPERIENCE THE HIGH OF BECOMING AN INSTANT MILLIONAIRE. So when the news broke (on 6PR’s Rumour File) that a large group of women who all went to the same gym had won the $80million Powerball prize in the Thursday night draw after putting in $5 a head into a last minute syndicate, there was a swell of excitement. The story was quickly picked up and followed by every other local radio stations and media outlet, with everyone keen to speak to a winner. Even better again, they were all battlers for whom their $1.5m windfall just before Christmas would touch a lot of lives.
They were only too happy to celebrate and cheer on demand for the cameras and speak to journalists hungry to find out more about them.
Reporters swarmed around Curves Gym in Beldon like flies around a picnic. One of the women said on live radio that they would be going into the Lotterywest HQ in Subiaco to register and claim the win! As the Subiaco reporter for the POST newspaper I knew I needed to get to the Lotterywest offices to cover the story. By the time I got there on Friday morning (December 3) there were of course other media (mainly TV crews) already waiting outside the Station Street entrance to the Lotterywest offices.
Lotterywest Acting CEO Jeremy Hubble said it was a history-making moment with the largest win ever experienced in WA.
While the media were hanging around, the women were escorted into the offices through a carpark entrance at the back. But the patience of the press pack was rewarded. One couple emerged first and were happy to talk to the media. One of their sons had gone to school that morning with holes in his shoes, they said. Before long, a big group of the women and some of their partners emerged from the offices. 18 | THE IRISH SCENE
In the throng I noticed a happy looking lady wearing a black Guinness top. “As an Irishman I love your tee-shirt,” I said over the noise and confusion. She mentioned something about her dad and then “Paddy’s” in Joondalup and that her name was Linda. “It’s a good pub, I drink there,” she told me. “We’ll (Linda and her husband Darryl) be there tonight and Sunday celebrating,” she said.
“It’s always incredible to meet our winners and to meet such a large group of syndicate winners, who can all share in the magic and joy, is just wonderful,” he said in a media release issued that day. “This record-breaking win for WA shares the title of third highest on a national level.” There was the light touch of Irish fingerprints on the Lotterywest press release. Media enquiries were directed to one James Mooney, whose family are originally from Dublin. It was a great day for Lotto watchers. Indeed, on my way into Subiaco that morning, I got a whisper of another even more heart warming Lottery jackpot involving an Irish couple in Perth, ordinary people
