For those lucky enough to find their way into the Winner’s Room, you won’t be sharing the moment alone! Inside the exclusive room hangs a gallery of photos and memorabilia over the years, including some of the first tickets, historical Lotto draws and winning faces, from the Lotterywest archives. Each image represents an iconic moment for Lotterywest and is a small glimpse into the work of making Lotto dreams a reality for every day Western Australians.
Sue Mawer, from Turner Design, who designed and installed the art feature in our Subiaco head office, said it was a fascinating process to engage with Lotterywest history and select images that reflected the joy of being a winner.
“Apart from creating a sense of celebration, we wanted to add warmth to the room and design a feature that would enhance the interior,” Sue said.
“The piece showcases a range of colour and black & white photos creating a layout that has energy and evokes a sense of excitement.”
The art transports us back to late 1932 when we were established as the Lotteries Commission, and began operating to benefit Western Australia in 1933. If you look closely you’ll see the very first ‘charity ticket’ worth £1000 pound, which was drawn inside the Perth Town Hall, and was won by 13 year-old, Joan Smart, from Cottesloe. A surprise to everyone, including her dad Andrew, who collected the prize on her behalf as she was a minor.
From the 1960’s we began drawing each game at our Murray Street headquarters and saw many special and recognisable guests walk through our doors to be lottery drawers for the night. This included American entertainer Liberace drawing the Magic Million lottery draw in May 1976, and sporting great John Newcombe helping make Lotto dreams come to life. Beauty queens, pop stars, community leaders and everyday even passers by the Commission, took turns to announce the winning numbers, under the eyes of auditors, of course!
In August 1982, we hit another milestone by introducing ‘Instant Lottery’ tickets, or ‘Scratchies’, as we now know them. All the while, we were seeing how Lotto dreams were coming true for every day West Aussies, far and wide.
The little town of Corrigin in the Wheatbelt shared an iconic win in 1990 when forty-one residents shared the Soccer Pools jackpot worth $405,608.80.
In May 1996, Powerball was launched across Australia, to replace MidWeek Lotto, and jackpots reached new heights. The catchphrase ‘One Powerball and I’m out of here’, was certainly one to remember.
From the 2000s onwards, we’ve introduced new games like Set for Life, said goodbye to Soccer Pools and made some tweaks to classics like Powerball. Jackpots have hit dizzying highs, including the largest jackpot in Australian history for the $110 million Powerball draw in July 2019.
Since establishment we’ve given away more than $8 billion to WA lottery winners and more than $5 billion to support the WA community. Today, more than ever, we continue to keep our vision of building a better Western Australia together, at the core of our operations.
