A DREAM job has come up for a car mechanic – £25,000-a-year for part-time hours, six weeks holiday, and the nearest competition is 1,700 miles away.
The garage in question is on the UK overseas territory of Tristan da Cunha, a windswept seven mile-wide volcanic island marooned halfway between South Africa and South America.
The island, the remotest inhabited place on the planet, has just 265 residents and is only accessible via a ten day sail from the nearest alternative car mechanics in Cape Town.
Tristan da Cunha’s drivers have one “semi-paved” three-mile long road – the M1 – which connects “The Settlement” to the nearby “Potato Patches”.
Now island bosses have launched a bid to tempt a mechanic to their shores to fix their 125 cars – and are willing to pay a staggering £25,000 for the part time gig.
Island organisers have put out the word that they are looking for a mechanic on the official website.
The vacancy would be based in Tristan da Cunha’s main settlement, which has been nicknamed the “Edinburgh of the Seven Seas.” Local islanders tend to call it “The Settlement” – as there is no other town or village on the island.
The new mechanic may find the social scene somewhat lacking on the island though – as even tourism officer Dawn Repetto admits: “On Tristan you have to make your own entertainment.”
Spare-time activities on the island include fishing, the weekly Saturday night disco, a round of golf, or a pint at the Albatross Bar, the island’s only pub.
The can also enjoy bird spotting the island’s albatross and penguin visitors – but even they only visit the island on rare occasions.
The new mechanic will be able to walk to their job, which, according to the island website will comprise of a “basic, dry covered workshop”.
The position is said to suit a “retired or semi retired person.”
The posting will last for a rather lengthy contract period of 24 months – as the harbour only allows access to the island in 60 days of the year, and so opportunities to return to civilisation are limited.
Local newsletter editor Richard Grundy said that those wishing to apply would be welcomed into a unique community.
Appealing for applicants in an interview on Thursday, he said: “How would you like to live in a tiny village where everybody knows one another, everybody gets on, there is plentiful food, mainly grown or caught locally?
“You can walk to work and your colleagues will be instantly your friends, who will invite you into their homes for meals and parties.
“Your skills will be precious to them and you will make a difference. So you will be valued. If you have these skills, want to work hard and, for a time be a part of this special community, go ahead and apply.
And according to Mr Grundy, one factor which draws people to the island is “being far from the madding crowd, with no pollution, crime or urban stress”.
Islanders have lived on Tristan since 1816.
Residents celebrate an annual Queen’s Day, use UK currency, and watch British TV programmes.
The island’s oldest inhabitant, Ellen Rogers, is 97 years old, whilst the Rogers family also gave birth to the youngest islander, Holly Rogers, in September of 2015.
The island has only ever had one traffic jam – when a disaster management exercise saw the population of The Settlement evacuated to the Potato Patches back in 2011.
