Beach boy George sets his sights on paradise caretaker

When George Karellas took a break from city life about 18 months ago to go travelling, he didn"t expect that he would be in line for the 'Best Job in the World'. That"s what the newspaper advert called it. Wanted: Caretaker of the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Duties include sunbathing, swimming, picnicking, exploring and weekly blogging about your experiences. After 10 years of working in Dublin, the Bettystown man decided that it was time to get away from the urban streetscapes to a more outdoor lifestyle. 'I was a country boy living in the city - I didn"t honestly think I"d last 10 years,' George says. 'I don"t like being landlocked!' His decade in Dublin included a period working in RTE, then seven or eight years in Carr Communications. He took a sabbatical from Carr. 'I had an old Landrover which I rebuilt to go surfing across Europe,' he said. Having grown up on the coastline, he had a yearning to return to beach life and the water, and spent the best part of the last year travelling around Europe surfing and pursuing other activities such as snowboarding. Having finished his travels, he spent some time at his father"s family home in Greece, 'brushing up on my Greek - and my tan,' he laughs. Then, his sister told him about this competition that was being run by the Queensland tourism board. The role of 'island caretaker" is a six-month contract, based on luxurious Hamilton Island in the Great Barrier Reef. It"s a live-in position with flexible working hours and key responsibilities include exploring the islands of the Great Barrier Reef to discover what the area has to offer. The winner will be required to report back on their adventures to Tourism Queenslandheadquarters in Brisbane (and the rest of the world) via weekly blogs, photo diary, videoupdates and ongoing media interviews. Living above the Great Barrier Reef is a pretty unique benefit but the successful candidate will also be paid a salary package of $150,000 Australian dollars for the six-month contract. The winner receives return airfares from their capital city, accommodation and transport on Hamilton Island, travel insurance, computer, internet, digital video and stills cameras access, plus travel to a number of the other Islands of the Great Barrier Reef. The six-month contract commences 1st July next. Stretching for 2,600 kilometres, and composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands, the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland, Australia, is the world"s largest coral reef system. The World Heritage Listed area supports a diversity of wildlife including whales, dolphins, sea turtles and more than 1,500 species of fish. The reef is an extremely popular destination for tourists, sustainably managing approximately two million visitors each year. George had never visited the Great Barrier Reef but started researching it online and found there were numerous websites dedicated to the area from which he could procure information. He had to put together a 60-second video, saying why he would be best for the job, and found that there were lots of islands with fantastic names on the Great Barrier Reef that he could incorporate into the video. Over 35,000 entered and he made it to the last 50. The organisers were so impressed with the way the top 50 had gone out to promote themselves and the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef over the past few weeks that they found it impossible to choose just 10 short-listed candidates, so increased it to 15 plus a wild card. Potential island caretakers will be travelling to Hamilton Island for the final selection process from 3rd to 6th May. 'I"ve just been swimming a lot and got my beach lifeguard certificate, and have to prepare for the interview - I might pop back into Carrs to see what advice they have.' In the meantime, George would appreciate visits to his facebook site, george karellas for the best job in the world, and his blog, georgetk.wordpress.com