[www.news.com.au]- A RUSSIAN contestant in Tourism Queensland’s world best job competition has been excluded after claims she was a pornographic model.

Tourism Queensland said today that “pursuant to the Terms and Conditions for the Best Job in the World” it was excluding Julia Yalovitsyna from the selection process.

“Given we are in the final stages of the selection process for the Top 10 and wildcard applicant, we will not be replacing Julia with another candidate.”

Ms Yalovitsyna has been the subject of claims she was involved in Russia’s porn industry.

Back story: A FRONT runner for the “best job in the world” has been accused of being part of an illegal internet porn operation.

Russian marine biologist Julia Yalovitsyna, 29, is in second place in an online competition to land a £70,000 job as caretaker of a remote Australian island.

But police in Russia have claimed Yalovitsyna and her husband supplied pornography to a Las Vegas-based sex website, according to reports.

The dream job includes whale watching, snorkeling and testing luxury spa treatments as the main tasks.

More than 34,000 initially applied for the six-month stint.

Run by tourism officials in Queensland, the online contest will produce a wild-card candidate who will secure a guaranteed interview for the job and a trip to the island.

The post has been dubbed “the best job in the world”.

In her online video application, Yalovitsyna – from the far north of Russia – poses as a weathergirl in a black bikini and claims she is “the one you have searched the world to find”.

She made clear that in Russia it is difficult to find a post that uses her expertise as a marine biologist.

“As you know, it’s very hard to find a worthwhile job that matches your education.”

A Moscow newspaper said that the island candidate was linked to “a chain of erotic studios” under police investigation in her home city of Petrazavodsk.

Newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda said Yalovitsyna is accused of coaching women for sexually explicit filming.

She is said to be a witness to a case of spreading pornography, which is being brought against her husband Alexei, 37, and others.

In response to the disclosures, Yalovitsyna said yesterday: “When I read this publication, I was shocked.

“Yes, at the moment my husband is accused of spreading pornography. But we plan to win this case. The investigation has no proof. It is absolutely concocted and my personal life is nobody’s business but of my husband’s and my own.”

Russian police refused to comment on the case.

Yalovitsyna chose to highlight her other attributes – namely speaking four languages, and voluntary work for an organisation called Mothers Against Drugs.

A Taiwanese woman is in first place in the online voting which ends on March 24 with job interviews being held by Tourism Queensland on May 3.

From the Moscow Times:Australian tourism officials have dubbed it “The Best Job in the World”: a six-figure salary for onerous duties such as whale watching, snorkeling and testing luxury spa treatments on a Great Barrier Reef island.

And a marine biologist from Petrozavodsk has become a leading candidate for the job of caretaker on Hamilton Island, off the Australian coast, thanks to tens of thousands of votes for her quirky online video application.

Yulia Yalovitsyna, 29, has made the shortlist of 50 contestants for the job, which pays AU$150,000 ($95,000) for the six-month stint, and was in second place in the online poll Tuesday afternoon.

The contest, part of a publicity drive by tourism officials in Australia’s northern state of Queensland, attracted more than 34,000 applicants.

Yalovitsyna, who anglicizes her name as Julia in the video, said in a telephone interview that she entered the competition after a friend who immigrated to the United States told her about the job.

“She described it very enthusiastically and said, ‘It’s exactly what you need,'” Yalovitsyna said.

The prospective island caretakers had to create a video explaining why they were the right person for the job. The public is voting for a single wild-card candidate who will win a trip to the island and a job interview.

So eager was one Florida man to get the job that he jumped from a bridge to spice up his video and was charged by police with disorderly conduct.

In her tongue-in-cheek video that shows her posing as a weather girl and wearing a black bikini, Yalovitsyna promises that she is “the one you have searched the world to find.”

Speaking fluent English, she tells viewers that she has a degree in marine biology, loves travel and speaks four languages.

“I’ve never been a smoker and don’t use alcohol at all and always smile,” she says.

While she studied marine biology, Yalovitsyna said she was unable to find a job using her profession in Petrozavodsk, capital of the northwestern republic of Karelia. “As you know, it’s very hard to find a worthwhile job that matches your education,” she told The Moscow Times.

She said she began volunteering at an organization called Mothers Against Drugs and in January won a grant from a Russian NGO to finance its public health campaigns around Karelia, which borders Finland.

Life has been anything but normal since her video began to soar in popularity, Yalovitsyna said, breaking off the call to answer a colleague’s question.

“To be honest, it is very difficult now to combine my usual responsibilities with such interest from the mass media,” she said. “Unfortunately I’m very often distracted from work, but I managed to arrange it with my colleagues.”

She said she’d rather not talk about her private life, saying only that she has a 5-year-old son and that her family is supportive of her bid. “All my family is very pleased for me and is trying to use as many resources as possible to help me,” Yalovitsyna said.

While her health-campaigning activities have allowed her to travel to countries including the United States, Yalovitsyna said she has never been to Australia. “I’m an inquisitive person, and I want to learn about something new,” she said.

“A person who studies from books is one thing, but a person who gains personal experience is quite another,” she said.

One of her university professors once told her that “you can’t study biology by correspondence course,” Yalovitsyna said.

Her video had garnered 37,8702 votes as of Tuesday afternoon, putting her behind just one contestant: a young woman named Claire from Taiwan, who had captured 94,376 votes. The online poll at Islandreefjob.com closes March 24.

Yalovitsyna still has a shot at getting hired if she doesn’t finish first in the voting.

Tourism Queensland will grant interviews to another 10 candidates from the shortlist and will not base its final decision on the Internet poll.

The job interviews will be held May 3, and the winning candidate will be announced May 6.