iPhone 6 launch: Huge queues in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and other Australian cities

PEOPLE have flown around the world and queued for days to listen to people in blue T-shirts chant at them. This is not a cult, Apple are just selling a new phone.

PEOPLE have flown around the world and queued for days to listen to people in blue T-shirts chant at them.

This is not a cult, Apple are just selling a new phone.

The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus hit stores across Australia this morning and Apple fanatics have been queuing for days to their hands on the shiny new product.

Perhaps nobody told them all they needed to do was rock up to their local phone shop and pick up one without all the fuss.

Fans queue outside the Sydney Apple store ahead of the new iPhone going on sale. Picture: Harry Tucker

One Telstra customer told news.com.au that 20 minutes before his local store opened there were only 10 people in line.

Yet 15 minutes after it opened the line had already disappeared.

And he wasn’t forced to listen to any chanting.

The first person to walk away with an iPhone 6 in Perth managed to drop his on concrete while talking to 9 News. He didn’t even get a chance to turn it on. Luckily for him though, it didn’t seem to smash.

Getting closer: Fans at the head of the line.

Back at Sydney’s flagship Apple store, the queue stretched many city blocks with entrepreneurial people making money to buy their iPhone by selling hot food to those waiting.

Some of those waiting have come all the way from China because they don’t want to wait until it goes on sale there.

Garry Holmes from Hardcourt who was first in the queue at Bourke street, Melbourne, arrived at 5.30pm yesterday. Picture: Nicole Garmston

They’ve come to experience the power of Apple, a company expert in the marketing of products so much so that employees cheer when people buy a phone.

They may feel like they have been treated like rock stars but people further back in the queue probably feel more like groupies complaining to police about the queue.

One customer, who was ¾ towards the back of the queue, told news.com.au that he had been line since 6.30pm last night and was being paid $320 to pick up someone else’s device.

Just 50m ahead, another customer had been lining up since 11am yesterday.

Tech experts had predicted the iPhone 6 would be the big seller but a random poll of the Sydney queue found customers wanted both, with some fearing devices would sell out.

Was the wait worth it?

@appleinsider The queue outside Apple's main store in Sydney is nearly half a km long #iPhone6 #iPhone6Plus pic.twitter.com/LTHDsrkiSg

— Paul Grover (@paulsgrover) September 18, 2014

Iphone 6 queue at Sydney apple store! pic.twitter.com/4YjkR3WyIQ

— Welling! (@archloverz) September 18, 2014

These people are not bums. They are in a queue at Apple Store Sydney to pay $800 each for a new phone tomorrow... pic.twitter.com/SNnzJ4FaHW

— Toro (@gamedale) September 18, 2014

Apple fever isn’t limited to Sydney with hundreds of keen iPhone fans camping out at shopping centres across Melbourne hours before the phone went on sale, The Herald Sun reported.

Apple iPhone 6 fanatics Rakesh and Manny from Caroline Springs camped out at Highpoint Shopping Centre to get phones for their wives.

Both will have queued for more than 36 hours by the time they get their hands on one.

Let’s hope they like it.

More than 800 people lined up at Chadstone to buy new iPhone 6 @9NewsMelb pic.twitter.com/CLyXUBSxuW

— Jayde Vincent (@JaydeVincent) September 18, 2014

In Brisbane fans also began queuing overnight with hundreds camping out overnight ahead of the phone going on sale.

The iPhone 6 overnight camping starts in Apple Store Westfield Chermside Brisbane Australia ... pic.twitter.com/SoQIFBLha1

— Amaki Hanyu (@AmakiAlistair) September 18, 2014