Mining is already pretty well regarded for providing healthy pay packets but a group of workers in the Goldfields has found a quite spectacular way to supplement their incomes. 

The night-shift plant operators, all employed by a WA mining contractor, comprised the majority of a syndicate from Kalgoorlie-Boulder that scooped a third of last week’s $160 million Powerball lotto jackpot. 

Each share in the Goldfields winning ticket is now worth $2.6 million, which is a decent bonus in anyone’s language. 

The group’s manager, Chris Wood, told ABC Goldfields that he hadn’t believed them when they rang to tell him about the win. 

“They’re great workers,” he said. ” 

“It is my best shift. They are all from here.” 

“I’m ecstatic. I’m very happy for each of them. I expect I might lose them though.” 

One of the group of winners, “Peter”, told 6PR Mornings with Liam Bartlett that he originally thought the syndicate had “only” won second division and had called one of his co-winners to report the smaller win (a mere $77, 258.20!) 

Clearly in shock, Peter said the ramifications of the life-changing win were still sinking in and that the ticket had been a “one-off” spur-of-the-moment purchase at a cost of $100 each. 

There were 20 shares in the ticket, with some families having twice as much reason to smile. 

“I couldn’t believe it, I checked the ticket about 10 times,” the 54-year-old said. 

“I don’t have a mortgage but others do. A couple of the guys, their wives had shares in the ticket as well [meaning wins of more than $5.3 million].” 

Peter said he knew some of the members of the Goldfields’ most recent big lotto win from earlier in the year. On that occasion a syndicate of 250 people shared a $63 million prize. 

In a video posted to social media, one of the winners from last week’s jackpot said she was intent on disproving the old adage about “One Powerball and I’m out of here.”

“I’ve known [about the win] since the start of shift and I’m still loading trucks,” she laughed.