Kosrae Nautilus Resort raffle: Australian wins after buying $66 ticket

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This was published 7 years ago

Kosrae Nautilus Resort raffle: Australian wins after buying $66 ticket

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A New South Wales man has won his own 16-room resort in a Pacific paradise for just $66.

An Australian couple who raffled off their remote Micronesian island have picked a winner.

Doug and Sally Beitz spent two decades developing the 16-room Kosrae Nautilus Resort in Micronesia, just to sell it all by raffle.

The Kosrae Nautilus Resort has been won by a NSW man.

The Kosrae Nautilus Resort has been won by a NSW man.

The Gold Coast couple gave it all - staff and scuba diving business included - to the winner who bought a ticket for $66.

Known only as Joshua, the winner was announced on Tuesday in a live auction that was streamed online, the BBC reported.

Joshua was one of 50,000 people from 100 countries around the world who bought a ticket. The Beitz family told the Guardian they would "do very well" financially out of the event.

Pacific prize: Kosrae Nautilus Resort.

Pacific prize: Kosrae Nautilus Resort.

When the couple tracked him down by phone, there were huge cheers when Joshua said he was from Australia. Joshua has said that he does not yet wish to speak to the media.

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The couple's son, Adam, one of four children, came up with the lottery idea.

The aim was to give the island to someone who wasn't already a millionaire.

Speaking when the raffle was announced, Doug said they hoped the idea would result in "this piece of untouched paradise placed in the hands of someone who truly falls in love with it, someone who has dreamed of island life and who will continue to respect the island's precious ecosystem, not simply the person with the deepest pockets".

Kosrae is a small island in Micronesia with a population of 6500. It's home to an international airport, schools, a thriving tourism industry, and a volcano.

The island was occupied by more than 8000 Japanese troops in World War II. Remnants from their stay can still be found by intrepid tourists.

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