An Inflatable Pool, Some Daffodils and a Chiswick Park

How Ben Southall managed to secure the ‘best job in the world’

Six months lounging on an island in the Great Barrier Reef was billed as the best job in the world and Ben Southall agreed.

But how did the charity worker manage to secure the position that almost 35,000 people worldwide applied for?

Simple, he brought an inflatable swimming pool to Chiswick, filled it with water and spent the scorching hot Mother’s Day distributing daffodils to mothers. “I also gave out champagne and T-shirts promoting Queensland,” Ben told The Times, “If people enjoyed my mad idea and wanted to support me, I asked them to log on to the website and vote. I think it helped.”

He settled on the idea after he discovered his initial stunt - to place an enormous fish tank in the middle of Trafalgar Square, fill it with water and snorkel inside - would cost him £1,000.

Ben was appointed as caretaker of Hamilton Island in the Whitsundays last week and given a salary of £74,000 and a rent-free, three-bedroom beachside villa in return for snorkelling and feeding tropical fish 12 hours a month.


May 11, 2009