Tourism Australia find ‘Best Job’ helper Barbie Defeo

TOURISM Queensland has finally tracked down the winner of a global competition to find a helper for Best Job in the World island caretaker Ben Southall.

The tourism body has avoided an embarrassing redraw after Californian Barbie Defeo stepped forward to claim her prize – a seven-week, all expenses-paid holiday in the state for her and three friends. The online competition closed on October 9 but Tourism Queensland could not find the winner, drawn from more than 23,000 entries from about 150 countries. Tourism Minister Peter Lawlor revealed on Saturday that Ms Defeo worked as a compliance manager in Huntington Beach, southern California. "She discovered she had won after reading that an American women was yet to claim the prize," Mr Lawlor said in a statement. "She then checked her emails which confirmed she was the lucky winner of the Best Experience in the World (competition). "I’m told she was ecstatic and in complete shock. "She will bring her husband and two teenage daughters and it will be her family’s first trip to Australia and the southern hemisphere." Ms Defeo’s only responsibility is to help Mr Southall write about Queensland in guest blogs. Tourism Queensland said this week it would re-draw the competition if the American winner failed to claim the prize before October 23. Ms Defeo said she had been following Mr Southall’s blog since he took up the dream job of island caretaker on July 1. "This will be our first visit to Queensland so there is just so much we want to see and do,” she said in the statement released by Mr Lawlor.

"My family and I love the outdoors and can’t wait to go bike riding, swimming and snorkelling.

"Most of all we’re really looking forward to meeting Ben and exploring the islands of the Great Barrier Reef." Mr Southall, a 34-year-old charity fundraiser from Hampshire in England, will receive a salary package of $150,000 for a six-month contract to promote tourism in Queensland. He’s living in a three-bedroom beach home overlooking the islands of the Great Barrier Reef.