Ben Southall Starts "Best Job in the World"
2009-7-1 9:58
The Best Job in the World winner Ben Southall says he'll miss his mom's Sunday roast as he starts his first day on the job in the beautiful tropical paradise of Australia's Hamilton Island, in the Great Barrier Reef. But it’s not just a long holiday for Ben – there’s work to be done.
Briton Ben Southall arrives on Hamilton Island, Australia, today to begin what has been billed as "The Best Job in the World". Ben's "Luckiest Girlfriend in the World", Bree, will be on the island-paradise with him.
Southall will be paid approximately $120,000 US dollars for his new six-month role which he won by beating out 34,000 online applicants in the highly publicized "Best Job in the World" campaign.
Tourism Queensland launched the advertising campaign in January, centered around the lure of a job that is more like a paid holiday.
Within days, the campaign went viral as news of the contest spread on social networking sites. Applicants from all over the world sent in 60-second video applications.
Southall says he is looking forward to his next six months as "caretaker" of the Great Barrier Reef island.
[Ben Southall, Hamilton Island Caretaker]:
"I think it's going to be quite nice living on an island though. I've really all of my life lived in the country. I've gone and seen friends when I need to in the city. But this is a nice piece of paradise. A remote island, isn't it?"
Although Southall says he'll miss his mom's Sunday roast, he’s looking forward to learning about the "great Aussie barbecue".
[Ben Southall, Hamilton Island Caretaker]:
“Maybe I'll probably miss mom's Sunday roast. But I'm going to be learning new foods on the barbecue, I suppose."
But it's not all snorkelling, diving, sailing and general beach-combing duties, as Southall explains.
[Ben Southall, Hamilton Island Caretaker]:
"Everyone's promoting this as the ultimate six month's hammock time. To me and to the rest of Tourism Queensland, we know that it's a job. We know it's a real position and there is a lot of hard work to come. It's really as I've got to be an ambassador for Queensland selling it to the world and you don't sit on your backside doing nothing to do that, do you?"
The Tourism Queensland advertising campaign set a new record at the Cannes International Advertising Festival in June when it took out an unprecedented three Grand Prix awards in recognition of the almost $200 million in global media exposure generated by the campaign.
