SYDNEY, May 14 (Xinhua) -- A young girl in the rural Australian town of Bendigo has made the find of a lifetime, stumbling upon a gold nugget estimated to be worth over 25,000 U.S. dollars.
The girl was walking with her father, sister and appropriately named dog, Lucky, when she literally stumbled upon the find, the Bendigo Advertiser reported on Monday
"I actually walked right past it but my daughter pretty much kicked it as she was walking,” the girl's father told the newspaper.
“She then goes, Dad, is this gold? I said, I think it might be."
Expert assessment proved the nugget to be the real deal, and with a weight of 624 grams or around 20 ounces, it's valued at over 25,000 U.S. dollars.
"To sell it as a nugget whole, it's probably worth a little bit more than that," the father said.
"We've come on some tough times so it's really good because we've been struggling financially. It couldn't be better timing really."
Bendigo was one of the major sites at the center of Australia’s mid-19th century gold rush which brought people from all over the world, to seek their fortunes.
The girl’s father, who says he has done some amateur prospecting in the past, plans to return to the site to see if the family can push their luck even further.
"Usually when you find a nugget that big, there will be more gold around so hopefully that's the case."
