The final 16 applicants who applied for 'The Best Job in the World', caretaker of the Great Barrier Reef, arrived on Hamilton Island for the final
interviews today.

HAMILTON ISLAND, AUSTRALIA (MAY 3, 2009) REUTERS-
The final 16 candidates for "The Best Job in the World"
arrived on Hamilton Island today for their interviews leading up to preparing
the announcement of the successful candidate on Wednesday, May 6. The 16
candidates attended an official welcome today and have gone through the first
task in the interview schedule of proving their ability to swim in the Dolphin
Pool and snorkelling. Monday and Tuesday's schedules have similar tasks
pertaining to the job description.
All the applicants, from 15 different countries, seemed to pass the
first lot of tasks with flying colours, enjoying it as well. Ben Southall from
the UK seemed to think it was too easy saying: "Well some say I'm
practically a fish myself so that's an easy swim, I'll have to go round the
Island after this, " while James hill from Australia liked the water
saying: "Yeah it was good, water temperature in perfect." Meiko
Kobayashi an applicant from Japan agreed with James on how nice the water was
and said she had fun. Other applicants like Juweon Kim from Korea found the
swimming competition a little harder.
"Ahhh, my swimming stroke is a little rusty, there's not many
swimming pools around Seoul, but yeah I did pretty good," Kim said.
Canadian applicant, Erik Rolfson, had a bit of trouble with the dive
in but recovered by the end of the competition saying: "The entry took a
lot out of me but I recovered."
The candidates should enjoy the selection process over the next few
days, but the CEO of Tourism Queensland, Anthony Hayes, who greeted the
applicants outlined what is needed to win, "The candidates will have a
ball and they all know they will be under the microscope because we need to
ensure the successful candidate is someone who can capture and hold world
attention, "Hayes said.
The new island caretaker will spend the next six months living on
Hamilton Island earning AUD $150 000 reporting back to Tourism Queensland on
what is happening on the Great Barrier Reef. They will live in the Blue Pearl
Villa a multi-million dollar three bedroom home with a swimming pool and a
golf cart.
Their tasks will include writing a weekly blog and keeping a photo and
video diary and online gallery of the busy schedule organised by Tourism
Queensland. Events will include snorkelling on Heron Island or sampling new
spa treatments on Hamilton Island. Ofcourse there will be the regular tasks
of feeding the 1500 different species of fish on the Great Barrier Reef,
cleaning the pool which has an automatic filter and collecting the mail via
the aerial postal service.
Applicants being interviewed on Hamilton Island at the moment range are
include students, media professionals, a receptionist, an actress and a
charity event manager. The final 15 were announced on April 3, 2009 including
as extra 'wild card' candidate from Taiwan, Clare Wang.
Once the final 16 were telephoned by the Queensland Tourism Minister,
Peter Lawler to tell them they had reached the interview list they began
preparing their journeys to Hamilton Island from Europe, North America, Asia,
New Zealand and Australia.
To apply for the job applicants had to prepare a 60 second video in
English explaining why they would be perfect for the job. The creative stunts
included a scuba diving tank in Amsterdam and dressing up like a mermaid in
Singapore.
Tourism Queensland started the campaign in January by advertising the
position, hoping to generate fresh interest in the area. They received 34,
684 applicant from 200 countries to look after the World Heritage listed
natural wonder, the Great Barrier Reef. The campaign has been extremely
successful for Tourism in Queensland generating USD$70m of global
publicity.