The winner is... A British charity worker

A British charity worker yesterday won 'the best job in the world' as caretaker of a tropical island on Australia's Great Barrier Reef after an unprecedented global search.

Ben Southall will spend six months swimming, snorkelling and sailing around the tourist paradise of Hamilton Island, earning €79,000 for blogging about his experiences.

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

Mr 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 said.

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

The judges said Mr 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.

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.

Mr 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.

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

Tourism chiefs estimate the promotion has garnered an estimated €83 million in free publicity.

Mr 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.