According to the Australian government, it’s the “world’s best job,” and it sounds idyllic. It’s for a caretaker on Hamilton Island in Australia’s Whitsunday Islands, needs no formal qualifications (beyond a desire to snorkel, swim, and sail), and includes living rent-free in a three-bedroom villa, complete with pool, and working 12 hours a month for six months at a salary of US$103,000. The only real duties are to produce a blog, a photo diary, as well as video updates to attract tourists.
Hard to beat? A lot of people think so. Since the government launched a site to accept video applications, it’s received a million hits in three days, crashing the server.
"Oh boy, what have we done?" joked the CEO of Tourism Queensland at the huge response.
To date, Tourism Queensland has received over 2,000 video applications, the BBC states. 10 shortlisted candidates and one wildcard, voted for by visitors to the Tourism Queensland website, will be invited to the islands in May for the four-day final interview process. The winner will begin the new job on 1 July.
