Ben Southall will spend six months swimming, snorkelling and sailing around the tourist paradise of Hamilton Island, earning A$150 000 for blogging about his experiences.

The huge worldwide interest in the post — 34 000 people submitted personal applications for the job — has delighted tourism chiefs in Australia's state of Queensland, who say it has given them invaluable publicity.

Southall (34) beat 15 other finalists who had been whittled down during a process that began in January, when interest was so great that it crashed the website of Tourism Queensland.

"I really didn't think I stood a chance to be honest," he told AFP.

"There were some great people there and I was very, very surprised when my name was called out at the end."

The judges said Southall impressed from his initial application, when he jumped into a freezing British lake to demonstrate the lengths he would go to in promoting Queensland's tropical waters to the world.

"(The) campaign has had people from all corners of the globe talking since its launch in January and has become arguably the most sought-after job in the world," Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said.

"I've spent the past few weeks watching in amazement the lengths candidates have gone to."

The 16 finalists, hailing from 15 countries, were flown to Hamilton Island earlier this week where they competed to impress a four-person selection panel in a process that was part job interview, part reality television show.

With more than a dozen camera crews from around the world looking on, they demonstrated their swimming skills in the island's resort pool, snorkelled the reef and were pampered with gourmet food and luxury spas.

Southall, from Hampshire in southern England, has worked as a tour guide in Africa and most recently as a charity fundraiser, running marathons and climbing mountains in his spare time.

One of the charities for which he has raised money is named after a friend who died in the December 26, 2004 tsunami that swept the Indian Ocean, killing more than 220 000 people.

"Now I'd like to benefit causes in Australia as well and try to get some charity work going here," he said.

The so-called "best job in the world" on Hamilton Island contrasts sharply with a previous job Southall had as a teenager.

"When I was 13 to 15 years old I worked as a fishmonger," he told AFP.

"I used to go there before school every day and set up a fish display and in the evenings come take it down. I had to take a shower before school.

A tropical paradise awaits...

Hamilton Island is in the Whitsunday Islands archipelago and is just five square kilometres in size, much of it tropical forest.

Located on the same latitude as Honolulu and Mauritius, it has a year-round tropical climate. Main activities are tourist-related — snorkelling, fishing, scuba diving, waterskiing and windsurfing.

Tourism chiefs estimate the promotion has garnered an estimated A$110-million in free publicity.

Organisers received a phenomenal worldwide response to the competition and their website crashed again Wednesday when the winner was announced.

State Tourism Minister Peter Lawlor said he was sure Southall would draw a loyal online following after he takes up the position on July 1.

"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," Lawlor said.

Southall's win surprised betting companies, which had tipped a sky-diving Taiwanese interpreter as favourite after she eclipsed her rivals in an online poll to snare a wildcard spot as a finalist.

The Briton plans to share the luxury three-bedroom beach house with his Canadian girlfriend Bre.

"She's doing cartwheels at the opportunity to come out here and join me," he said.

With visitor numbers down in Queensland amid the global economic downturn, he was also mindful that it was the bottom line that counted for the tourism chiefs who will pay his wages when he reports for work at the beach.

"Ultimately," he said, "it's about drawing as many people as I can to these great areas of Queensland."

AFP