Barrow Creek is a long way from civilisation. It’s 300km from Alice Springs, and has a population of 4. But people all around Australia are receiving their iPhone 7 deliveries today, and Telstra made exactly that happen for the Barrow Creek Hotel’s publican, a bloke by the name of Les Pilton, who upgraded from an ancient Nokia flip-phone to an iPhone 7 Plus. He even got it in Matte Black — lucky guy.
Telstra says that this is probably the most remote iPhone 7 delivery around the world, and given Barrow Creek’s spot 280 kilometres up the Sturt Highway from Alice Springs and 220 kilometres down the Sturt from Tennant Creek, we’d believe them.
The telco’s local area manager for the NT, Neale Wigney, travelled 300km to hand-deliver the phone to Mr Pilton at 8:01AM this morning, just as doors opened at Apple Stores around the country. Fun fact: the Barrow Creek Hotel is older than the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and it’s the only stop along the 500km road between Alice Springs and Tennant Creek. The town only gets Telstra coverage, but it’s 4GX — so it’s actually reasonably quick.