Tourism Australia track down 'Best Job in the World ' helper
17 Oct 2009, 1344 Hrs

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Melbourne, Oct 17 The winner of the global competition to find a helper for Best Job in the World island caretaker Ben Southall has been finally tracked down.

Tourism Queensland said this week it would re-draw the competition if the American winner failed to claim the prize before October 23.

However, Californian Barbie Defeo has stepped forward to claim her prize - a seven-week, all expenses-paid holiday in the state for her and three friends.

Defeo's only job is to help Southall write about Queensland in guest blogs.

The online competition closed on October 9 but the tourism body could not contact the winner, drawn from more than 23,000 entries from about 150 countries.

Tourism Minister Peter Lawlor revealed that 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," News.com.au quoted Lawlor as saying 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," Lawlor added. (ANI)

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