Hamilton Island Gets a Brit for 'Best Job in the World'

Where: Hamilton Island, Australia

May 6, 2009 at 9:06 AM | by JetSetCD | 0 Comments

Aw, shucks! We didn't win Tourism Queensland's huge contest to live on Hamilton Island, also known as the publicity bash called "Best Job in the World." Newsflash: you didn't either, unless you are Ben Southall of Hampshire, England. After four days of grueling Survivor-ish physical and mental testing on the island in the Whitsundays, the final 16 competitors were whittled down to just this 34-year old former African tour guide and charity worker.

It was truly a harrowing time for the folks, who were forced to endure such tests as receiving massages, dining on sumptuous meals of local cuisine, and being submersed in the Great Barrier Reef. Now with Ben Southall pegged to assume his role as "island caretaker" on July 1 for a period of six months, the other 15 can return to their normal, non-videoblogged lives on dry land.

Ben, who will bring his Canadian girlfriend to stay on Hamilton Island with him, will also receive AUD 150,000 ($110,475) for maintaining a future blog of his explorations, straining himself to retrieve his luxury villa's mail, and making conversation with the locals. This sounds perfect for the chap who, in the his application for the island job, said �the most important thing to me in life is to have an exciting job that makes me happy, puts smiles on peoples� faces and achieves challenging goals.�

Boy, now we sure are glad we didn't win. We would have had to achieve challenging goals, not to mention get wet. Now we'll just kick back and await early July, when Ben will doubtless appear on the internet again, but this time to make us drool over his new homestead.

[Photo: Torsten Blackwood/AFP/Getty Images]

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Tags: Best Job In the World / Hamilton Island / Tourism Queensland / Travel Contests / Ben Southall / → All Tags