Unexpected outback —

Australian travelers stranded in wilderness because of iOS 6 maps

Motorists were taken over 40 miles off course.

The edge of Murray-Sunset National Park on the border of South Australia and Victoria.
The edge of Murray-Sunset National Park on the border of South Australia and Victoria.

We had a good run mocking iOS 6 maps for its wrong turns and bizarre aerial shots, but that's all over now that Australian police have actually deemed the app a danger to the public.

statement on the Victoria police website has officially decreed Apple's contribution to the navigation world untrustworthy, after several users ended up 70km (about 43.4mi) off-course stranded in the wilderness and had to be rescued by police.

"Local police have been called to assist distressed motorists who have become stranded within the Murray-Sunset National Park after following directions on their Apple iPhone," reads the statement from the Mildura police department.

The bewildered travelers had been looking for Mildura, a rural city with a population of just 30,000. Imagine their surprise when they ended up in Murray Sunset National Park, a vast area of more than 6,000 square kilometers where the population is mainly made up of rare fauna and birds. Having found themselves 70 kilometers off-course in what the app said was downtown Mildura, the motorists were left without food and water, on some occasions, for up to 24 hours. Oblivious to the reason behind their predicament, they would walk miles further off course, away from their vehicles, looking for a phone signal.

Try and get directions between Mildura and the park on Google Maps, and the service won't even allow it, most likely because it doesn't want a lawsuit on its hands for sending unsuspecting members of the public into the bush solo.

Murray Sunset National Park, one of a vast network of parks near to Mildura, is a scenic spot famous for its Pink Lakes—so-called because of a red pigment that turns the waters dark pink in summer and white the rest of the year. It is, however, as police confirmed in their statement, not somewhere you'd like to get lost.

"Police are extremely concerned as there is no water supply within the Park and temperatures can reach as high as 46 degrees, making this a potentially life threatening issue."

The force has contacted Apple to ensure a correction is soon made and Mildura is repositioned, but in the meantime it's urging the public to rely on other mapping systems.

It's not the first time Apple's new mapping system has let a user down in an epic way that goes beyond its ordinary comical fails. According to a report by Gizmodo Australia, a Robert Hills looking for Brisbane Hospital was directed to a house in the suburbs. A site apology from CEO Tim Cook is probably not sufficient in cases such as these.

This story originally appeared on Wired UK.

Channel Ars Technica