The world's oldest sheep has died in western Victoria.
Lucky, a ewe from Lake Bolac, west of Ballarat, made it into the Guinness Book of World Records two years ago.
She died yesterday morning, aged 23 years, six months and 28 days.
Owner Delrae Westgarth says Lucky had recently begun to show signs of suffering.
"It's a relief. She was good up to that first lot of heatwaves we had. She went downhill a bit from then," she said.
"We brought her into the shed where she was reared and put airconditioners on her, which kept her going a bit longer, but unfortunately she didn't make the 23 years and 7 months."
Ms Westgarth says she found Lucky as a newborn lamb abandoned by her mother.
"We found her early in the morning and I hand-reared her until she was old enough to go out with the other sheep," she said.
"When she got too old for that we brought her back into a paddock on her own so she could eat by herself, so the other sheep wouldn't pinch all the tucker."
"She used to come and howl at the back gate, torment the dogs and that sort of thing."