Are you an adventurous couple looking to escape to paradise? Offering a great work-life balance, completely immersed in a wondrous tropical jungle landscape in the middle of the Indian Ocean, you will be helping to curate the ultimate experience for our guests at our exclusive eco-lodge here on Christmas Island.
Full Time, Per Person: $1,200/week (before tax), 5 days/wk (including some weekends/public holidays). Package includes staff share house accommodation, return flights to Christmas Island from Perth, car, fuel, internet, and other perks!
Contract Date: 5th April 2023 until 5th January 2024, with the option to renew for the right candidates. Commitment to the whole 9-month contract is a must.
Swell Lodge is situated on remote Christmas Island and is an eco-lodge like no other. Perched atop oceanfront cliffs deep within the expansive national park sit two completely off-grid lodges, housing no more than 6 guests in total. Its guests visit from all corners of the globe to witness the rare, unique, and endangered animal species, including our famous annual red crab migration where 189 million crabs travel through the jungle to an abundant surrounding ocean.
The experience for guests is carefully curated to offer an authentic luxury experience complete with daily guided nature tours, and fine dining, featuring some of the island’s wild foraged foods, and fresh seafood incorporating a fusion of flavours from neighbouring South-East Asian islands.
Chef
Skill Set Required: As the only private chef for the lodge you must be able to work autonomously, to design and execute not only a complete menu but also a memorable experience for each guest. This highly personal approach offers great satisfaction, and a unique opportunity to creatively experiment with modern fine dining trends.
The ability to drive a manual vehicle is essential.
Job Role: The role is managed into a 5-day/week workload. The chef needs to prepare gourmet picnic lunch boxes for the guides to collect in the mornings, and 5 nights a week travel out to the lodge to serve a 3-course dinner to the guests in each of the two private eco-lodges, leaving behind a self-serve breakfast for each group.
Once settled into the role, between meal prep, days can be free for snorkelling in the crystal-clear tropical water amongst the coral and fish, exploring the rainforest, caving, visiting the blowholes, experiencing the island’s famous red crabs and endemic birdlife, or just socialising with the adventurous small island community.
Guide
Skill Set Required: Previous guiding experience is not necessary but highly desired.
We’re looking for an enthusiastic, fit and outdoorsy type to join our team who’d love to share the amazing natural wonders of Christmas Island with our lodge guests. Home to some rare and often very friendly wildlife and varying pristine ecosystems, a strong passion and knowledge of the natural environment are assumed.
The ability to drive a manual vehicle is essential and an up-to-date first aid certificate is required.
Job Role: Over a 5-day-a-week rotating roster you’ll learn to pick the guests up each morning in a lodge vehicle and take them on pre-organised tours ranging from walking through the jungle to waterfalls, blowholes, remote secluded beaches, snorkelling tours, showing them the history and culture of the island, laying out pre-prepared gourmet picnic lunches prepared by our chef (including one for you!), pointing out the wildlife and generally just ensuring our guests have the best experience possible on their holiday.
You’ll be one of two main guides for Swell Lodge with 4 days a week guiding and 1 day a week cleaning the lodge.
Considerations:
Whilst you escape the mainland grind, into a more relaxed ‘island’ pace there are always considerations.
This is a remote island living with slow, expensive and unreliable delivery of mainland foods. The ability to plan ahead, manage and order supplies, be resourceful and have an understanding of growing some fresh herbs and vegetables be advantageous.
Remote island living also requires you to be able to live respectfully and responsibly in a small community.
The freedom that comes with this independent role also requires enormous reliability and work ethic and, of course, good time management.
As our company ethos is based on preserving this wildly abundant environment, our work processes must be considered to offer the least impact on our natural environment. Eco-work practices are encouraged and a love of – and patience for – nature is essential.
For the Chef, it is important to note that while the majority of prep and pre-cooking will be done back in the kitchen at the staff share house in town (30-40min from the lodge), the cooking facilities at the lodge are limited to a single indication hot plate. As the lodge is solar-powered, electricity usage needs to be minimised, so skills in pre-cooking techniques including sous vide are important.
Applications close 28th Feb
If you’re interested (or know someone who might be) or would like more information, please apply below or email Kyle at [email protected]. Applicants must attach their CVs, along with a recent photo of themselves.
