Hi @Dellandbaz, welcome to the community.
For a phone which was $1100 on purchase, one would expect that it would last far more than 3 years. Many new smart phones have lives longer than the technology they support (3G for example).
You do have rights, this other thread about another Apple product contains some useful information which may assist you moving forward:
Unfortunately Apple is know for its lack of response and willing to repair a faulty Apple product. Their usual tactic is to convince a consumer to swap their faulty phone for a reconditioned/repaired phone…while the faulty phone is sent away for a repair only to be on sold in the future. To me this is very shonky and Apple should be offering to repair phones (either in or out of the Australian Consumer Guarantee under the Australian Consumer Law) rather than making money from its customers by refusing to repair.
I have also had a run in with Apple on a different issue (activation lock), and in the future will never buy an Apple product.
Let us know how you get on.
