More than 10,000 people have jumped at the chance to become the caretaker of a tropical Australian island - including a prankster identifying himself as terror mastermind Osama bin Laden.

A 30-second video available on YouTube shows an actual video of the bearded Al-Qaida leader with garble dubbed over his real voice and subtitles stating why he is right for the job.

"I enjoy the outdoors and sandy areas," the subtitles read. "I've got experience with videos, delegating tasks and experience with large scale event coordination."