A young father has hit the jackpot after digging up two giant gold nuggets worth nearly $200,000.

The natural pieces of treasure were discovered on a private property in Tarnagulla, near Bendigo, north of Melbourne and have a combined weight of nearly 140 ounces. 

Ray Swinnerton, Vice President of the Bendigo Prospecting Club, said he had met the lucky prospector, who wished to remain anonymous for security reasons, and not surprisingly was ‘overjoyed’.

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‘He was thrilled when he found it, as you can imagine. He makes a living from this stuff, so a find like that is very exciting,’ Mr Swinnerton said.

‘He didn’t want to be named until he had sold them off. He’s fairly young and it’s obviously a fair bit of money we’re talking about. 

‘It was very unusual. Most of the finds are smaller than a fingernail, so this one is pretty special.’

Mr Swinnerton added that gold mining was more of a hobby for most people.

‘Most of us don’t do this for the money. Gold detecting is very expensive,’ he said.

‘The detector alone is about $7000. I suppose it’s like fishing, in that it’s usually cheaper to go and buy your fish than the costs of catching the fish. We mostly do this for the experience, so a find like that is the bonus of a lifetime.’

Selling the gold can also be difficult because a licence is needed to sell to overseas buyers.

‘I believe he has sold one of the nuggets and is preparing to sell the other. To sell gold overseas you need to get a licence which is very difficult to obtain, so it can take a while to sell them within Australia, as there are more affluent people overseas,‘ Mr Swinnerton said.