Briton picked for 'best job in the world'

BRISBANE, Australia, May 6 (UPI) -- Australian tourism authorities said a British man has been chosen for "the best job in the world," a caretaker position on a Great Barrier Reef island.

Tourism Queensland said Ben Southall, 34, of Hampshire, England, was chosen from a pool of 34,000 applicants from around the world for the six-month, $106,000 position as caretaker of Hamilton Island, The Times of London reported Wednesday.

Southall's duties will include updating a weekly blog as well as video and photo diaries with details of the fishing hiking, sailing, snorkeling and exploring he performs while on the island, Tourism Queensland said.

Tourism officials call the caretaker position "the best job in the world."

The new hire, who said he has never before visited Australia, is being lodged in a three-bedroom villa on the island.

"It's amazing," Southall said. "You think of a three- or four bedroom-house in England and it has nice red bricks and is quite small but this house is a dream, it's enormous and looks out over the Coral Sea and at least four or five people can stay at any one time."