As the temperature hovered around five degrees, about 30 people stood out the front of the Koroit Street store waiting for the doors to open at 8am, when the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 plus smartphones went on sale nationally. 

Terang’s Nathan Bailey arrived just before 6am but still wasn’t at the head of the queue. 

“There were a couple of people already there when I arrived. They said they had been there since 5am,” Nathan said. 

“I’ve always been a technology fan and I’ve been looking forward to the release.

“I don’t have to work until four o’clock this afternoon, so I have plenty of time to play around with it and figure out all the cool new features.” 

Telstra account manager Michael Smith said there had been strong interest in the release of the new models, which are larger and faster than previous iPhones. 

“It’s one of the biggest iPhone launches we’ve had,” Mr Smith said. 

“We had a waiting list and have found that more and more people have been wanting to be kept up to date about this launch compared to other models. 

“The phones look and feel great and people have been very keen on the new larger screens.” 

Mr Smith said the store had received a good initial allocation of stock with more due to arrive over the coming days.

People were also lined up in front of Warrnambool’s Optus store on Liebig Street from 5am, where staff also reported strong interest in the new handsets.