05.28 am, Sunday July 05 2009

Hundreds apply for dream job in tropics

19:29 AEST Wed Jan 14 2009
By Steve Gray
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Is the Pope planning to blog from a Queensland tropical isle?

Someone from Vatican City has checked out Tourism Queensland's "best job in the world" website, but they could be competing with applicants from Mongolia, Romania and Croatia.

Throw in the multilingual candidate - whose application was in six languages - and they'll be up against some stiff competition.

"We have now had half a million unique visits to the website advertising the job, and two million page views," said Tourism Queensland spokeswoman Kerri Anderson.

"Yesterday alone over 300,000 people visited the site, including 25,000 in one hour."

The six-month stint as the new caretaker on the Great Barrier Reef's Hamilton Island will pay $150,000.

The successful applicant will need to bunk in a luxury villa, explore neighbouring islands, swim, snorkel, discover wildlife, and the locals.

After all that, the lucky person will get to blog - or brag - about their island adventures.

Ms Anderson said the campaign to find someone to spend six months caretaking a tropical island has featured in a trivia quiz in a British pub; people have walked into the Australian embassy in Washington to submit applications; it's been the buzz among the staff at San Francisco's Hyatt hotel; and it's the hot topic in Ottawa, which is shivering at -20 degrees centigrade.

More than 350 have submitted a mandatory 60-second video application.

"We've also received hundreds of emails," Ms Anderson said.

Tourism Queensland said it expects more that 10,000 applications from all around the globe.

Applications are open until February 22 and 11 short-listed candidates will be flown to Hamilton Island in early May for the final selection process.

An announcement will be made on May 6 with the contract beginning on July 1.

The applications can be viewed at www.islandreefjob.com.

 
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