APPLE has rushed out an update for its new smartphone although map-makers may not have been as mixed up as first thought.

Mildura made headlines all over the world this week after Apple's new iPhones directed people to the middle of nowhere.

Police yesterday issued a plea urging motorists to be careful when navigating by their smartphone.

Police said Apple iPhones operating on the iOS 6 system have mistakenly directed a number of motorists to the Murray-Sunset National Park.

Tests on the mapping system by police confirmed Mildura was listed inside the park.

But it may not have been Apple's fault at all - there are, or were, two Milduras.

The Australian Gazetteer is the authoritative list of 300,000-plus placenames, complete with coordinates, which includes two Milduras.

Geosciences Australia looks after Australian Gazetteer and the place-name data is supplied by the state of Victoria.

One is the well-known river city, the other is an entry for Mildura Rural City, even though the municipal boundary is many kilometres south.

The supplied information has this second "Mildura Rural City'' inside the Murray Sunset National Park, right inside salty Rocket Lake to be precise.

Even a big company like Apple doesn't have enough staff to check every location as supplied.

Apple has sent out an update to its phones and police are asking motorists to give the directions suggested by their phones "the sniff test''.

Murray-Sunset National Park is almost 700,000ha of scrub-covered sand dunes with very little surface water and high temperatures in the summer.

"Some of the motorists located by police have been stranded for up to 24 hours without food or water and have walked long distances through dangerous terrain to get phone reception,'' a police spokesman said.