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pizza oven, which we kept extremely secret,” Anderson said.

But news of the tasty drop-off proved too hot to handle, and yesterday he was fielding calls from eager reporters -- with one radio station asking if he could deliver to their studio in Perth, over 3,000 kilometres (1,800 miles) away.

“That’s probably a bit out of our range,” he said. At the moment, Anderson and his team are only planning to fly to properties within 100 kilometres.

The idea was cooked up as coronavirus travel restrictions bit into the outback’s peak tourist season, stopping the usual stream of caravans and months of booked-out rooms.

Regional travel in the Northern Territory remains strictly controlled, with large swathes in lockdown over fears for remote indigenous communities who experts warn could be particularly susceptible to an outbreak, due to higher rates of chronic illness.

The idea to fly pizzas and other supplies to remote properties was more about supporting those in the area than simply a business venture, the inn’s owner Gary Frost told national broadcaster ABC.