Aussie grandma finds old Lotto ticket while cleaning - wins $2.5m

SYDNEY - A grandmother who won A$2 million (NZ$2.5m) after stumbling across a four-year-old Powerball ticket in a drawer plans to keep it a secret from her family - for now.

The 73-year-old retired dairy farmer says she and her husband, who have not been named, could have used the money years ago but will probably pass it on after they die.

"When you get to my age, you're trying to give things away," the woman said in a statement from NSW Lotteries.

"We will use the money to help the family down the track, but they don't know that we've won. They'll find out when we leave this world."

The woman was doing an autumn clean and came across an in a envelope which contained the Powerball ticket for the October 7, 2004 draw.

"My husband said that it would be too old to check, but I took the ticket to the agent and they put me on the phone to someone from NSW Lotteries who told me it was worth $2 million," she said.

"I just went limp in the shop. When we got outside I told him how much we'd won and he said it could not have happened to a nicer person."

- AAP