After five days of Tatts desperately trying to contact the registered division one winner, the Edenhope man finally checked his ticket and discovered he had won a division one prize of more than $518,000.

The man, who wished to remain anonymous, said his wife admitted she had noticed some private number calls but assumed it was persistent telemarketers so had not answered the phone.

“Wow thank you! Terrific. My wife said she’d seen the private numbers flashing up but we don’t answer them because it’s usually telemarketers calling!” he said.

“Then we saw in the newspaper and heard on the radio that someone who purchased a registered TattsLotto ticket from Edenhope won division one!

“I thought, well I better check it. I dropped in to the newsagency and normally when I check my ticket it’s usually ‘better luck next time’, but today it said to contact Tatts. Then it was like ‘it really could be me.’”

The regular TattsLotto player said it was a dream-come-true to have his numbers come up.

“I chose my winning numbers by writing 45 numbers on small pieces of paper and turning them upside-down on the table. As I flipped them over, I wrote them down on the coupon. I’ve stuck with those numbers for the last eight years probably,” he said.

“I’ll probably use this windfall to look after the kids. We’ll pay all our debts and be debt-free.”

“And my wife and I have been dreaming about going caravanning – that’s definitely on now.”

The Edenhope Newsagency sold the winning division one lotto ticket.

Newsagency owner Leonie Lang said it was exciting news.

“It has created a bit of a buzz around town,” she said.

Ms Lang said she had owned the store for eight years and never sold a winning ticket.

“Prior to that though, there was a winning ticket sold about 18 years ago,” she said.