Final 16 on tenterhooks for Australia's dream job

May 5, 2009, 8:57 GMT

   Sydney - Torrential rain kept the fun indoors Tuesday for 16 finalists with just one more sleep on Queensland's Hamilton Island before learning which one among them has landed what the Australian tourism-promotion people have called 'the best job in the world.'

   Thunderstorms meant the scrapping of sailing and other outdoor activities for the candidates who were chosen out of thousands to make the shortlist to be the caretaker on the paradise island in the Great Barrier Reef.

   German hopeful Mirjam Novak pampered herself in the spa while waiting to see who would pick up the six-figure pay packet for six months of cleaning the swimming pool, feeding the fish and producing a blog to relay to the world impressions of Hamilton as a holiday destination.

   'I guess the rain wasn't so bad after all, was it?' she told Australia's AAP news agency. 'I've never done anything like this. I've never been to a spa, so this is wonderful.'

   The one who wins on Wednesday is to start the job July 1 and would have the satisfaction of having beaten a whopping field of 34,633 entrants who sent in 60-second video-clip applications.

   The online betting agency PinnacleSports has Taiwan's Clare Wang, an interpreter and skydiver as the favourite. She made the final selection courtesy of a wild card handed her by Tourism Queensland for being voted the most popular contestant.

   Wang got 151,676 votes - almost three times the tally of her nearest rival.

   Wang and fellow aspirants - all are under 40, none is from the Middle East, Africa or South America, and two are Australians - are supposed to undergoing a gruelling interview process.

   'They keep calling them challenges and assessments, but it's just a whole big adventure,' Australia's Hailey Turner said.

   Tourism Queensland chief executive Anthony Hayes is basking in the glory of putting on one of the world's most successful tourism-marketing campaigns.

   'It's that two-minute grab in the news every night, two minutes of good news, telling people this is the place in Queensland to be,' he said of a promotion campaign that masquerades as a job search. 'We really hope the next 12 months will see a pickup because of this promotion in the number of sales.'