This was followed by global news reporting confirmation from the Australian government that indeed the nugget was gold. The fruit farmer Boyce had stated that the 10-pound nugget, dubbed "Mortgage Buster", "had been discovered while planting a citrus tree and that it was assayed".

He claimed that the AU$70,000 worth nugget would help him to pay off his mortgage and a long sought-after vacation. It later turned out that the huge "gold nugget" was an April's Fools' Day joke that the farmer had planned to bring smiles to his people suffering from the region's seasonal floods and wildfires.