Briton Ben Southall wins ‘best job in the world’

British charity fundraiser Ben Southall has won the Best Job in the World competition.

Picked from a pool of 34,000 applicants from across the world, 34-year-old Southall was one of 16 finalists for the $150,000, six-month Great Barrier Reef island caretaker job starting on July 1. Queensland Premier Anna Bligh announced the winner’s name at a ceremony on Hamilton Island on Wednesday. Southall said the campaign, which has generated about 100 million in tourism publicity, had been an “enormous worldwide success”.

“I hope I can sell the reef as much as everybody is expecting,” he told the audience at the ceremony.

Mr Southall has worked as a charity project manager and fundraiser and a tour guide in Africa. In his spare time he manages a music festival and keeps fit running marathons, climbing, scuba diving, bungee-jumping and mountain-biking.
In his application he said: “The most important thing to me in life is to have an exciting job that makes me happy, puts smiles on people’s faces and achieves challenging goals.”

He plans to take his Canadian girlfriend, Bre, with her when he moves into a rent-free three-bedroom villa, complete with pool, on Hamilton Island. His job includes a weekly blog, photo diary and video updates on his explorations to attract visitors to the reef’s 900 islands.

Below the water, the Great Barrier Reef stretches for 1,600 miles across 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands and is the world’s largest coral reef system with “an abundance of wildlife”, according to Tourism Queensland.
Hamilton Island, where the temperature is warm all year round, is the largest inhabited island in the region and is located just off the coast of Queensland with blue skies, crystal water and pure sands forming “the backdrop to an ideal island life”.
About two million tourists visit the islands each year, but most stay on the mainland and visit only on day trips.
Tourism Minister Peter Lawlor said: “His ideas for how he will make the role his own plus his initiative and ability to rise to a challenge impressed the selection panel and secured his place in the top job.”

Ms Bligh is hoping the “phenomenal” response to the job offer will translate into visitors to Queensland to boost the tourism economy.

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