15 Strangers Split $44.3 Million Lottery Jackpot: 'This Changes Our Lives'

• The Lott, an Australian lottery organization, said the prize was the second biggest this year and the fourth-largest ever offered by the game
• The prize was divided among 15 people who purchased shares in a syndicate at various newsagents in Queensland
• “I thought you were s--- stirring me!” one winner told said when told they had won

Fifteen lucky people in Australia just became $2.9 million richer after winning a new lottery jackpot. 

The Lott, Australia’s lottery organization, made the announcement following the Tuesday, April 15, drawing of the Oz Lotto game, with a total prize of about $44.3 million, or AU$70 million.

The winning Oz Lotto numbers were 14, 32, 13, 29, 41, 23 and 8, and the supplementary numbers were 43, 4 and 40, according to The Lott. 

While there was one winner of the jackpot in Queensland, the actual prize was divided among 15 people who had all purchased shares in a syndicate at various businesses from Townsville to the Gold Coast, Australian outlet 9News reported.

Each of the 15 syndicate winners will receive AU$4,713,844.42, about $2.9 million.

The lottery organization said some of the winners — who are unknown to each other — had already been notified of their good fortune because they earlier registered their tickets with The Lott Members Club.

But other winners have not yet been contacted and may be unaware that they won. 

“It’s remarkable that 15 Queenslanders became multimillionaires tonight!” Anna Hobdell, a spokesperson for The Lott, said in a statement on Tuesday. “While we’ve tried contacting those who registered their tickets to The Lott Members Club, some may have yet to discover the good news!”

“We’re encouraging anyone who purchased a syndicate entry in Queensland for tonight’s Oz Lotto draw to check their tickets as soon as possible!” Hobdell added. 

Winners who registered their tickets with the lottery may have received the "life-changing" phone call from The Lott as soon as five minutes following the drawing, Yahoo! News previously reported. 

In a statement prior to the drawing on Tuesday, The Lott said the prize was Oz Lotto’s second biggest this year and the fourth-largest offered by the game in its 31-year-history. 

Oz Lotto involves seven winning numbers and three supplementary numbers picked from one lottery draw barrel of 47 numbers.

The chance of hitting all seven numbers from one game is 62,891,499 to 1, according to The Lott. 

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"As soon as we get the draw results ... our team processes the paperwork, and essentially, we'll give them a call pretty much straight after that to give them the news," Oz Lotto spokesperson Hobdell, who usually make the happy phone calls to the winners, told Yahoo! before the latest drawing. 

"Then we pretty much harass them until we can get a hold of them," Hobdell added. 

Based on her experience, Hobdell told Yahoo! that players tend to go speechless upon being told they won a huge prize. 

“When it's the bigger prizes, they kind of go into shock and don't really say much,” she said. "It can be a bit hard to convince some people over the phone late at night. So as you can imagine, some people might think they're getting pranked."

The Lott has since shared some of the reactions from a number of the winners of Tuesday night's drawing.

“Oh my god, that’s so good. This changes our lives. We’ve been trying to get our first home, so this will do that,” said one person who was told he’s now a multimillionaire. . 

“I thought you were s--- stirring me!” said another, adding, “Believe you me, I will be looking at retiring!”

About AU$4 billion in prizes are awarded to Australian players annually, The Lott said, adding that about AU$1.5 billion go to hospitals, schools and sporting groups through state and territory lottery taxes.