Darwin man wins $1 million after catching tagged barramundi on night out with brother
A quiet night out on the water with his brother has turned a 26-year-old Darwin man into a millionaire — thanks to a single barramundi.
Matthew Maurice reeled in an 80cm fish carrying a bright red tag, the top prize in the Northern Territory’s Million Dollar Fish competition, The Guardian reported. The catch is worth A$1 million.
“We just wanted to be together”
Maurice had finished football training and decided to take a boat out with his brother, who was visiting from overseas. They did not go far — less than a kilometre from the boat ramp.
“We just wanted to fish and talk, that was the only thing,” he told Channel 7’s Sunrise. “Whether we caught fish or not, it didn’t matter.”
When he hooked a barramundi and switched on his head torch, the first thing he saw was “a big silver body and a big red tag hanging out of it”.
He only found out exactly what he had won after handing in his catch. Northern Territory chief minister Lia Finocchiaro reportedly told him: “I’m about to give you the best news of your life.” Maurice then rang his mother and brother to share it, ABC News reported.
A house first, then a treat
Maurice says he can hardly believe it. “I’m just happy to catch fish. I can’t believe I caught a million dollars’ worth of fish,” he told reporters. “Any barra is a good barra, especially the million-dollar one.”
He joked that maybe he should not be trusted with the money himself, but said he plans to be sensible: buy a house, pay off what he owes, and “then treat myself a little bit”.
He is only the second person to land the top prize in the competition’s 12-year history. Keegan Payne, from Katherine, won A$1 million three years ago.
How the competition works
The contest is run by Tourism and Events Northern Territory to promote the region’s fishing. For this season, which began on 1 October, 100 tagged barramundi worth A$10,000 each were released into Top End waterways alongside the single million-dollar fish.
The competition runs until 31 March 2027, and 96 of the smaller prizes were still waiting to be claimed when the win was announced. That means plenty of anglers will keep heading out with hopes of their own red tag.
The story was also widely shared by the Daily Mail. For Maurice, though, the best part may be how it happened — a simple evening of fishing and catching up with his brother that ended with the luckiest catch of his life.
