Queensland’s state government has announced a contest that will award one lucky person $150,000 Australian (about $105,000 U.S.) to live as caretaker on a beautiful tropical island for six months.

The caretaker’s duties: Stroll the beach, snorkel the reef, maybe clean the pool and report to a global audience the wonders of taking a vacation in Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef region.

Qualifications: must be an excellent communicator — and be good at relaxing.

The chosen applicant will stay rent-free in a multi-million dollar three-bedroom beach home complete with pool and golf cart.

The campaign is part of a drive to protect the state’s $18 billion tourism industry during the current tough economic times.

The application is online at www.Islandreefjob.com.

Victoria, Australia’s top teaching watchdog says a teacher accused of swearing at 11-year-old students can keep his teaching license. The Victoria Institute of Teaching (VIT) did find the unidentified teacher guilty of incompetence for failing to adequately supervise students, maintain a safe environment or adequately protect students from harm.

The teacher left the school where he had problems but found a teaching job elsewhere, according to the newspaper, The Australian.

Among the accusations against the teacher, he allegedly:

• permitted a Year 5 student to climb over a tennis court fence
• failed to take action after a fight between two pupils
• allowed students to wander off, and
• dropped the f-bomb twice in front of students.

Here’s the best part: He also allowed students to wrestle in the classroom. His defense: He said he was showing his pupils the difference between real wrestling at the Commonwealth Games and fake TV wresting. (TV wrestling is fake?)

The VIT panel found the teacher’s wrestling explanation was plausible!

The panel wrote in its judgment, “The conduct was related to a relatively short period of time in a career that spanned nearly seven years.”

The school drew pupils from a disadvantaged community. Many of the students had various behavioral problems.

On top of that, it becomes more difficult to defend the employee when he claims he didn’t — and people come forward to say he did.

Matt Brown was forced to resign as police minister of New South Wales, Australia,  just three days after being sworn in.

People said he “dirty danced” in underwear while over a female colleague who was lying on a lounge. After initially telling State Premier Nathan Rees that the incident hadn’t taken place, Brown now admits dancing in just his undershorts at a party in parliament three months before he was sworn in as police minister, but denies the part of dancing over the colleague.

“I subsequently put it to former minister Brown late last night that ‘there are too many reports of you in your underwear for me to ignore,’” Rees told a radio station. (Now there’s a quote you hope not to hear too often from a politician.)

No word on how Brown’s performance compared with Patrick Swayze, star of the film Dirty Dancing. We don’t hear any film studios calling Brown.

A U.S. Post Office in New York carries this familiar creed: “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”

In Australia, they can add “body fat” to the list of obstacles overcome to make sure the mail goes through.

The Australia Post – the Down Under version of the U.S. Postal Service – has increased the maximum weight for “posties” by 33 pounds.

The old weight limit was 198 pounds. Why? Because the Honda motorcycles many posties use has a weight limit of 286 pounds. The extra 88 pounds was for letters.

Now, the Aussie deliverers can weigh up to 231 pounds. The Post will make sure their mail bags are lighter loads.

The union representing mail workers said the old limit had caused recruitment headaches, but the Australia Post denies that, according to a Sydney newspaper.

Those concerned about the safety of the heavier posties on bikes don’t need to worry: Testing shows the heftier riders won’t affect stability, handling or safety.