Narromine's Mahalia Maher "overwhelming" Sunrise Cash Cow win

Mahalia Maher broke down in tears after David Koch revealed the amount of winnings.

Mrs Maher said she and her family have been "overwhelmed" after taking home one of the show's biggest giveaways.

"When you answer those kinds of things, you're always hoping it might be you, but you just never think it's going to happen," she said.

"You could probably tell I was very overwhelmed when they called, I said 'oh my god' a lot."

It was a lucky win for Mrs Maher who had been entering her home phone number in the competition since the inception of the Cash Cow, but decided the day before they rang to enter her mobile number.

"...They would normally call just before I would leave for work, and my mobile wasn't the greatest thing it was a hit and miss with answering times," she said.

"But my husband bought me a new mobile for Christmas this year, and the day before they called me, I had noticed when it had jackpotted that they didn't call until much later when I would have been at work.

"So on a whim I changed my contact number from my home number to the mobile, and when they called me and I was sitting at work."

Ms Maher said she and her husband Bruce were "very thankful and grateful" to have won the prize money, which would give them some financial freedom to pay off their debts.

"We've been in our own home for five years this year, and since we moved in we haven't been able to afford to do any of the renovations or general maintenance that needed to happen," she said.

"Both my husband and I work full-time, but we pretty much live fortnight-to-fortnight so when we've needed to do things, we've got little loans and put stuff on credit cards, so we've got a bit of debt we need to pay off.

But the family won't be spending all of the winnings on their house, they'll also be splurging on a trip to Disneyland.

Mrs Maher said she's continuing to encourage people to start entering themselves.

"I've always been one of those people that believe that you've got to be in it to win it, and now that it's happened to me it's just .. it really can," she said.