Pitcairn social work - the hardest job on Earth?

Calling all social workers wanting the ultimate challenge, in a community riven by sex abuse on one of the earth's most isolated islands.

That challenge has just come your way - Pitcairn Island.

Safe Overseas Services has placed advertisements in New Zealand newspapers to find social workers for the remote island.

The three-month posting, paid for by the British Government, will see successful applicants work in a community of less than 50 people, including six men found guilty of underage-sex crimes.

While the advert doesn't mention the pay structure, it is understood to be very generous by social work standards.

While the advert says applicants should have an understanding of the dynamics of sexual abuse for victims and offenders, it does not specifically refer to the traumas the Pitcairn community faced last year during the trials.

The community was split and the island, settled by Bounty mutineers more than 200 years ago, was portrayed as a place left behind by the rest of the world.

Liz Beddoe, the head of applied social sciences at the University of Auckland Faculty of Education, said yesterday that the positions offered the opportunity of a lifetime.

"If you're in a position to do it, it would be worth it."

But she said the job would not be easy and would require compatible people who were able to cope with the isolation and perhaps people with complementary skills.

"The most important things would be personal resilience and the ability to manage yourself in a really, really demanding professional environment while being able to go home and have a life," Ms Beddoe said.

"The reality is, in a community like that everybody will have been affected. It's a bit like the rebuilding effort after the tsunami in some of those remote communities.

"It's that whole thing about everybody being affected and therefore how the normal kinds of systems of order and how communities manage themselves can break down.

"While it is nowhere near as extreme as that, socially and emotionally it will have had that kind of impact on the community."

The social workers must be available from February 22 to June 3 this year but no mention is made of sea sickness or the other horrors associated with the high seas voyage to the British protectorate, located halfway between New Zealand and Peru.

An indication of the island's isolation and living conditions is hinted at however: "As this position involves living and working with one other colleague in a remote situation, applications from suitably qualified applicants with experience of working together are especially welcome."

Enthusiasm, self-motivation and good health are also requirements, the advertisement says.