The world will soon know who will get the “best job in the world”. The position is for a caretaker to live on and look after a tropical island off the coast of Queensland, Australia. Duties include relaxing on the island and writing a blog to promote the area. Other responsibilities are to feed the fish, clean the pool and collect the mail. The job website, islandreefjob.com, tells applicants: “There are over 1,500 species of fish living in the Great Barrier Reef. Don’t worry. You won’t need to feed them all.”

The successful applicant will get a salary of nearly US$100,000 for the six months. Unsurprisingly, over 35,000 people applied for the job, but officials from the tourism department announced have already selected 50 candidates.

What is the next step? The tourism board will select ten people. Visitors to the website will choose an eleventh person. The public can look at the video applications of all 50 hopeful caretakers. The eleven lucky finalists will then fly to Hamilton Island for a formal interview. The winner will be announced on May 6, and the job starts on July 1. The current shortlist of 50 includes people from 22 countries. They include dancers, chefs, scientists and students. Queensland Tourism Minister Desley Boyle said it was very difficult to choose the 50 candidates. He told reporters, “it boiled down to…the motivation and professionalism of the applicants and their 'fit' with the job and Tourism Queensland”.