THREE sisters will share their stake in $1 million after buying a winning QuickPick lotto ticket at a Manunda newsagency.

Yesterday, one of the sisters checked the ticket after Golden Casket released information about the unclaimed prize from Saturday's Gold Lotto draw.

The Far Northern winners did not want to be named but said they split the cost of the $7.90 ticket, which was bought at Raintrees Newsagency.

"We don't usually buy Gold Lotto tickets together,'' one of the sisters said. "We were just in the Raintrees Shopping Centre together recently and thought we'd give it a go.'' The trio will now share $1,044,240.21.

"We plan on sharing the money with other members of our family so the prize will be spread out.

"At different times everyone has struggled for money so the idea of being debt-free is amazing. We'll do different things like pay off bills, settle mortgages and invest some of the money for our adult children's futures as well."

Raintrees Newsagency owners Mal and Sharryn Stokes were thrilled the mystery winners had been found.

"t's excellent. I can't place (who it was) offhand, we have so many customers every day,'' Mr Stokes said.

"It might be the largest winning ticket in dollar amount.''

Mr Stokes said he didn't expect to meet the sisters but was pleased they were from the Far North.

"It's always good when locals become winners,'' he said. 

"Out of all the prizes we've sold over all the years, no one has ever come in and said they were a winner.

"If I won $1 million I'd take a couple of days off and I'd  work at a different pace.''

Golden Casket public relations executive Zoe Knobel said North Queensland had become a lotto hot spot.

"It's great to see more local lotto winners in North and Far North Queensland, particularly after a Townsville family won a $27.9 million Oz Lotto prize three weeks ago and a Cardwell family won a $324,000 Saturday Gold Lotto prize just last week,'' Ms Knobel said.

Meanwhile, Mrs Stokes said the winning ticket had become the talk of the shopping centre.

"We've had a lot of people in here checking their tickets,'' she said.

"And they all think we are lucky. I'm hoping we can have another big win soon.''

The winning numbers in draw 3271 were 43, 30, 26, 42, 32 and 17 with the supplementary numbers 12 and 6.

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