Standard | DST | Zone | States/territories | |
---|---|---|---|---|
UTC+06:30 (year round) | Cocos | CC | ||
UTC+07:00 (year round) | Christmas | CX | ||
UTC+08:00 (year round) | Western | WA | ||
UTC+08:45 (year round) | Central Western | (South-eastern WA & Border Village, SA) | ||
UTC+09:30 (year round) | Central | NT | ||
UTC+09:30 | UTC+10:30 | Central | SA, Broken Hill | |
UTC+10:00 (year round) | Eastern | QLD | ||
UTC+10:00 | UTC+11:00 | Eastern | NSW, TAS, VIC, ACT, JBT | |
UTC+10:30 | UTC+11:00 | Lord Howe | Lord Howe Island | |
UTC+11:00 | UTC+12:00 | Norfolk | Norfolk Island |
Australia uses three main time zones: Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST; UTC+10:00), Australian Central Standard Time (ACST; UTC+09:30) and Australian Western Standard Time (AWST; UTC+08:00). [1]
Time is regulated by the individual state governments, [2] some of which observe daylight saving time (DST). Daylight saving time (+1 hour) is used between the first Sunday in October and the first Sunday in April in jurisdictions in the south and south-east:
Standard time was introduced in the 1890s when all of the Australian colonies adopted it. Before the switch to standard time zones, each local city or town was free to determine its local time, called local mean time. Now, Western Australia uses Western Standard Time; South Australia and the Northern Territory use Central Standard Time; while New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania, Victoria, Jervis Bay Territory, and the Australian Capital Territory use Eastern Standard Time. Daylight saving time is not currently used in Western Australia, the Northern Territory, or Queensland.
The Cocos (Keeling) Islands uses UTC+06:30 year round, Christmas Island uses UTC+07:00 year round, while Norfolk Island uses UTC+11:00 as standard time and UTC+12:00 as daylight saving time.
This article needs additional citations for verification .(August 2012) |
The standardisation of time in Australia began in 1892, when surveyors from the six colonies in Australia met in Melbourne for the Intercolonial Conference of Surveyors. The delegates accepted the recommendation of the 1884 International Meridian Conference to adopt Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) as the basis for standard time.
The colonies enacted time zone legislation, which took effect in February 1895. The clocks were set ahead of GMT by 8 hours in Western Australia; by 9 hours in South Australia (and the Northern Territory, which it governed); and by 10 hours in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and Tasmania. The three time zones became known as Western Standard Time, Central Standard Time, and Eastern Standard Time. Broken Hill in the far west of New South Wales (strictly speaking, the county of Yancowinna) also adopted Central Standard Time due to it being connected at the time by rail to Adelaide but not Sydney. [3]
In May 1899, in a break with the common international practice of setting one-hour intervals between adjacent time zones, South Australia advanced Central Standard Time by thirty minutes after lobbying by businesses who wanted to be closer to Melbourne time and cricketers and footballers who wanted more daylight to practice in the evenings. [3] It also meant that South Australia became one of only a few places in the world which uses a time-zone meridian located outside of its geographical boundaries. Attempts to undo this change in 1986 and 1994 failed. [4] [5] [ citation needed ]
In 1911, when the Northern Territory was separated from South Australia and placed under the jurisdiction of the Federal Government, the Territory kept Central Standard Time. Likewise, when the ACT and Jervis Bay Territory were broken off from New South Wales, they retained Eastern Standard Time.
Since 1899, the only major changes in Australian time zones have been setting of clocks half an hour later than Eastern time (GMT plus 10:30) on the territory of Lord Howe Island, and Norfolk Island changing from UTC+11:30 to UTC+11:00 on 4 October 2015. [6]
When abbreviating "Australian Central Time" and "Australian Eastern Time", in domestic contexts the leading "Australian" may be omitted; however, the prefix "A" is often used to avoid ambiguity with the time zone abbreviations "CST" and "EST" referring to the Central and Eastern Time Zones in North America. [ citation needed ]
Though the governments of the states and territories have the power to legislate variations in time, the standard time within each of these is set related to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) as determined by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures and set by section 8AA of the National Measurement Act 1960 [7] of the Commonwealth.
Australia has kept a version of the UTC atomic time scale since the 1990s, but Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) remained the formal basis for the standard times of all of the states until 2005. In November 2004, the state and territory attorneys-general endorsed a proposal from the Australian National Measurement Institute to adopt UTC as the standard of all Australian standard times, thereby eliminating the effects of slight variations in the rate of rotation of the Earth that are inherent in mean solar time. All jurisdictions have adopted the UTC standard, starting on 1 September 2005.
In Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT, the starting and ending dates of daylight saving times are officially determined by proclamations, declarations, or regulation made by the State Governor or responsible minister. Such instruments may be valid for only the current year, and so this section generally only refers to the legislation. In New South Wales and Western Australia, the starting and ending dates, if any, are to be set by legislation.
Australian Western Central Standard Time (AWCST) UTC+8:45
The choice of whether to use DST is a matter for the governments of the individual states and territories. However, during World War I and World War II all states and territories used daylight saving time (DST). In 1968 Tasmania became the first state to use DST in peacetime, followed in 1971 by New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, and the Australian Capital Territory. Queensland abandoned DST in 1972. Western Australia and the Northern Territory did not adopt it. Queensland and Western Australia have occasionally used DST since then during trial periods.
The main DST zones are the following:
During the usual periods of DST, the three standard time zones in Australia become five zones. This includes the areas that do not observe DST: Western Australia (UTC+08:00), the Northern Territory (UTC+09:30), and Queensland (UTC+10:00).
The change to and from DST takes place at 02:00 local standard time the appropriate Sunday. Until 2008, DST usually began on the last Sunday in October, and ended on the last Sunday in March. However, Tasmania, given its latitude further south, began DST earlier, on the first Sunday in October, and ended it later, on the first Sunday of April.
On 12 April 2007, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, and the ACT agreed to common beginning and ending dates for DST from 2008. DST in these states and South Australia began on the first Sunday in October and ended on the first Sunday in April. Western Australia was then the only state to use DST from the last Sunday in October to the last Sunday in March, but it abolished DST in 2009. [18]
State/territory | Start of DST | End of DST |
---|---|---|
Western Australia | N/A | |
Queensland | ||
Northern Territory | ||
South Australia | first Sunday in October | first Sunday in April [19] |
New South Wales | ||
Australian Capital Territory | ||
Jervis Bay Territory | ||
Victoria | ||
Tasmania |
Unlike the rest of New South Wales, Broken Hill and the surrounding region (Yancowinna County) observes Australian Central Standard Time (UTC+09:30), a time zone it shares with nearby South Australia and the Northern Territory. [20]
Heron Island, 72 km (45 mi) off the coast off Gladstone in Queensland, has two time zones: the island resort follows DST all year round, whereas the Marine Research Centre and the Parks and Wildlife office on the island remain on Eastern Standard Time. Resort manager Alistair Cooray says no-one is sure how the time zone came about. 'I believe it started in the late '50s early '60s as a way to give the guests a bit more daylight time on the island and no-one knows for sure though.'" [21]
Lord Howe Island, part of the state of New South Wales but 600 kilometres (370 miles) east of the Australian mainland in the Pacific Ocean, uses UTC+10:30 during the winter months (30 minutes ahead of the eastern states), but advances to UTC+11:00 in summer (the same time as the rest of New South Wales).
A compromise between Western and Central time (UTC+08:45, without DST), unofficially known as Central Western Standard Time, is used in one area in the southeastern corner of Western Australia and one roadhouse in South Australia. Towns east of Caiguna on the Eyre Highway (including Eucla, [22] Cocklebiddy, Madura, Mundrabilla and Border Village, just over the border into South Australia), follow "CWT" instead of Western Australian time. The total population of that area is estimated at 200 people. [23] This area did not change when South Australia introduced DST. During the Western Australian trial of DST from 2006 to 2009, this area also sets its clocks ahead one hour during summer. This time zone is not officially recognised, but is marked by official road signs. It is tracked in the tz database, the record of time zones for computers, as "Australia/Eucla". [24]
A number of small towns in Outback Western Australia also follow UTC+09:30 rather than UTC+08. These towns include Blackstone, Irrunytju, Warakurna, Wanarn, Kiwirrkurra, and Tjukurla. [25]
The Indian Pacific train has its own time zone—a so-called "train time" when travelling between Kalgoorlie, Western Australia and Port Augusta, South Australia—which was at UTC+09:00 hours during November 2005 when DST was observed in the eastern and southern states. [26] [27]
Australia's external territories follow different time zones.
Territory | Standard | DST |
---|---|---|
Heard and McDonald Islands | UTC+05:00 | no DST |
Cocos (Keeling) Islands CCT | UTC+06:30 | no DST |
Christmas Island CXT | UTC+07:00 | no DST |
Norfolk Island NFT/NFDT | UTC+11:00 | UTC+12:00 |
Australian Antarctic Territory – Mawson | UTC+05:00 | no DST |
Australian Antarctic Territory – Davis | UTC+07:00 | no DST |
Australian Antarctic Territory – Casey | UTC+08:00 | no DST |
In 2000, all of the eastern jurisdictions that normally observe DST—New South Wales, Victoria, the ACT, and Tasmania—began DST early because of the Summer Olympic Games held in Sydney. These jurisdictions moved to DST on 27 August 2000. South Australians did not change their clocks until the usual date, which was 29 October 2000.
In 2006, all of the states that followed DST (the above states and South Australia) delayed their return to Standard Times by one week, because of the 2006 Commonwealth Games held in Melbourne in March. DST ended on 2 April 2006.
There are situations in which a nationwide time is in effect. In the case of business activities, a national time can be used. For example, a prospectus for the issue of stock in a company would usually set the closing time for offers at some location (e.g. Sydney) as the time when offers must be received, regardless of the source of the offer. Similarly, tenders for their sale of stock usually set out the time at a given location by which they must be received to be considered. Another example is the Australian Securities Exchange which operates on Sydney time. [28]
On the other hand, Federal legislation yields to state-regulated standard times in many diverse situations. For example, it yields in setting the normal working times of Federal employees, the recognition of public holidays, etc. The Federal government also relies on local times for Federal elections, so that the polls in Western Australia close two or three hours after those in the eastern states. Also, documents to be filed in a Federal Court may be filed based on the local time. The effect of this is that if there had been a failure to file a legal document on time in an eastern State, that document can sometimes still be filed (within two hours) in Western Australia.
The 18 zones for Australia as given by zone.tab of the IANA time zone database. Columns marked * are from the zone.tab.
c.c.* | coordinates* | TZ* | Comments | UTC offset | DST |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
NF | −2903+16758 | Pacific/Norfolk | +11:00 | +12:00 | |
AU | −3133+15905 | Australia/Lord_Howe | Lord Howe Island | +10:30 | +11:00 |
AU | −5430+15857 | Antarctica/Macquarie | Macquarie Island | +10:00 | +11:00 |
AU | −3352+15113 | Australia/Sydney | New South Wales (most areas) | +10:00 | +11:00 |
AU | −4253+14719 | Australia/Hobart | Tasmania | +10:00 | +11:00 |
AU | −3749+14458 | Australia/Melbourne | Victoria | +10:00 | +11:00 |
AU | −2728+15302 | Australia/Brisbane | Queensland (most areas) | +10:00 | +10:00 |
AU | −2016+14900 | Australia/Lindeman | Queensland (Whitsunday Islands) | +10:00 | +10:00 |
AU | −3157+14127 | Australia/Broken_Hill | New South Wales (Yancowinna) | +09:30 | +10:30 |
AU | −3455+13835 | Australia/Adelaide | South Australia | +09:30 | +10:30 |
AU | −1228+13050 | Australia/Darwin | Northern Territory | +09:30 | +09:30 |
AU | −3143+12852 | Australia/Eucla | Western Australia (Eucla) | +08:45 | +08:45 |
AU | −3157+11551 | Australia/Perth | Western Australia (most areas) | +08:00 | +08:00 |
AQ | −6617+11031 | Antarctica/Casey | Casey | +08:00 | +08:00 |
CX | −1025+10543 | Indian/Christmas | +07:00 | +07:00 | |
AQ | −6835+07758 | Antarctica/Davis | Davis | +07:00 | +07:00 |
CC | −1210+09655 | Indian/Cocos | +06:30 | +06:30 | |
AQ | −6736+06253 | Antarctica/Mawson | Mawson | +05:00 | +05:00 |
Queensland has had a particularly involved debate over daylight saving time, with public opinion geographically divided. The state's first trial of DST lasted one year, from 31 October 1971 to 27 February 1972. [29] In 1973 the Committee on Daylight Saving analysed this trial and the effects of daylight saving on different demographics, and ultimately concluded not to adopt daylight saving time. The committee's reasons include Queensland's unsuitable geography and a lack of broad support from denizens. [30]
Later, another introduction of DST was trialled from 29 October 1989 to 4 March 1990, overseen by the daylight saving task force. At the task force's recommendation, the trial was extended from one to three years. [31] The Legislative Assembly voted to hold a referendum on DST at the trial's conclusion in 1992, which was defeated with a 54.5 per cent negative vote. [31] The referendum result displayed a distinct trend—that public opinion on DST in Queensland is geographically divided, with the negative vote being strongest in northern and western districts, while the positive vote being strongest in the southeastern region (e.g. in Brisbane). [30] The holiday islands in the Whitsundays (Hayman, Lindeman and Hamilton) continued to observe DST in defiance of the Standard Time Act (The "Australia/Lindeman" Timezone in the tz database is based on this). However the practice was abandoned two years later in 1995. Heron Island, 72 km off the coast off Gladstone, has two time zones: the resort follows DST all year round, whereas "the Marine Research Centre and the Parks and Wildlife office on the island remain on Eastern Standard Time".
Since the late 1900s, there have been a number of petitions submitted to the Legislative Assembly of Queensland, lobbying for the introduction of daylight saving time or for another referendum to be held. A petition in 2006 was signed by 62,232 people. In response to these petitions, then Queensland Premier Peter Beattie commissioned research to find out if it should be re-introduced into Queensland. Around this time, Beattie predicted that daylight saving in Queensland would increase the rate of skin cancer in the state, an assertion for which there is no evidence, according to the Queensland Cancer Fund. [32]
In October 2007, the government-commissioned research was presented to Anna Bligh, who had replaced Peter Beattie as the Premier of Queensland; she ruled out holding a new referendum, despite the report indicating that 59 per cent of the residents of Queensland and 69 per cent of those in southeastern Queensland to be in favour of adopting daylight saving. [33]
In December 2008, the Daylight Saving for South East Queensland (DS4SEQ) political party was officially registered, to advocate for the use of a two-time-zone system for DST in Queensland, with most of the state (in land area) using standard time. This party contested the March 2009 Queensland State election with 32 candidates, and it received about one per cent of the statewide primary vote. [34]
In early 2010, the DS4SEQ political party approached the independent member, Peter Wellington, to introduce a private member's bill for DST. [35] Since Wellington agreed with the principles of the DS4SEQ proposal, specifically the dual-time-zone system, he drafted the Daylight Saving for South East Queensland Referendum Bill 2010 and he submitted this bill to Queensland Parliament on 14 April 2010. [36] Wellington called for a referendum to be held at the next state election on the introduction of DST into southeastern Queensland under the dual-time-zone system.
In response to this bill, Premier Anna Bligh announced a community consultation process, which resulted in over 74,000 respondents participating, 64 per cent of whom voted in favour of a trial, and 63 per cent of whom were in favour of holding a referendum. [37] The decision announced by the Premier on 7 June 2010 was that her Government would not support the bill because rural Queenslanders were overwhelmingly opposed to DST. [38] The Bill was defeated in Queensland Parliament on 15 June 2011. [39]
Western Australia has also had a particularly involved debate over DST, with the issue being put to a referendum four times: in 1975, 1984, 1992, and 2009. All of these proposals to adopt DST were defeated. Voters registered a negative vote of 54.6 per cent in the 2009 referendum, the highest percentage for all four of these referendums. Each referendum followed a trial period during which the state observed DST. The first three followed a one-year trial, while the 2006 Western Australian Daylight Saving Bill (No. 2) 2006 instituted a trial of DST beginning on 3 December 2006, and lasting for three years.
Some towns located near the border of another state or territory use a different time zone to the rest of their own state or territory and may follow the bordering state or territory's time zone instead. The most well-known example of this is Broken Hill and the surrounding area, which, despite being located in New South Wales, use the same time zone as South Australia year-round.
Additionally, Gold Coast Airport, which straddles the border between New South Wales and Queensland (with the majority of the airport on the Gold Coast and a small portion of it in Tweed Heads), uses Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST) throughout the airport all year round, despite New South Wales observing daylight savings (which Queensland does not observe).
On its four-day journey across this Continent/Country, somewhere in the middle of the Nullarbor Plain, the Indian pacific train creates its own time zone for scheduling purposes.
Tomorrow we would switch our clocks to "Train Time", ninety minutes behind Adelaide. This unofficial time zone was needed because Australia's states were huge, and their time zones were synchronised with their biggest population centers.
Daylight saving time (DST), also referred to as daylight saving(s), daylight savings time, daylight time (United States and Canada), or summer time (United Kingdom, European Union, and others), is the practice of advancing clocks to make better use of the longer daylight available during summer so that darkness falls at a later clock time. The typical implementation of DST is to set clocks forward by one hour in spring or late winter, and to set clocks back by one hour to standard time in the autumn (or fall in North American English, hence the mnemonic: "spring forward and fall back").
The North American Central Time Zone (CT) is a time zone in parts of Canada, the United States, Mexico, Central America, and some Caribbean islands.
The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, and the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico.
The Mountain Time Zone of North America keeps time by subtracting seven hours from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) when standard time (UTC−07:00) is in effect, and by subtracting six hours during daylight saving time (UTC−06:00). The clock time in this zone is based on the mean solar time at the 105th meridian west of the Greenwich Observatory. In the United States, the exact specification for the location of time zones and the dividing lines between zones is set forth in the Code of Federal Regulations at 49 CFR 71.
In the United States, time is divided into nine standard time zones covering the states, territories and other US possessions, with most of the country observing daylight saving time (DST) for approximately the spring, summer, and fall months. The time zone boundaries and DST observance are regulated by the Department of Transportation, but no single map of those existed until the agency announced intentions to make one in September 2022. Official and highly precise timekeeping services (clocks) are provided by two federal agencies: the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) ; and the United States Naval Observatory (USNO). The clocks run by these services are kept synchronized with each other as well as with those of other international timekeeping organizations.
Time in New Zealand is divided by law into two standard time zones. The main islands use New Zealand Standard Time (NZST), 12 hours in advance of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) / military M (Mike), while the outlying Chatham Islands use Chatham Standard Time (CHAST), 12 hours 45 minutes in advance of UTC / military M^ (Mike-Three).
The Atlantic Time Zone is a geographical region that keeps standard time—called Atlantic Standard Time (AST)—by subtracting four hours from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), resulting in UTC−04:00. AST is observed in parts of North America including several Caribbean islands. During part of the year, some portions of the zone observe daylight saving time, referred to as Atlantic Daylight Time (ADT), by moving their clocks forward one hour to UTC−03:00. The clock time in this zone is based on the mean solar time of the 60th meridian west of the Greenwich Observatory.
Moscow Time is the time zone for the city of Moscow, Russia, and most of western Russia, including Saint Petersburg. It is the second-westernmost of the eleven time zones of Russia. It has been set to UTC+03:00 without DST since 26 October 2014; before that date it had been set to UTC+04:00 year-round on 27 March 2011.
In Australia, referendums are public votes held on important issues where the electorate may approve or reject a certain proposal. In contemporary usage, polls conducted on non-constitutional issues are known as plebiscites, with the term referendum being reserved solely for votes on constitutional changes, which is legally required to make a change to the Constitution of Australia.
UTC+10:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +10:00. This time is used in:
UTC+11:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +11:00. This time is used in:
UTC+09:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +09:00.
Time in Brazil is calculated using standard time, and the country is divided into four standard time zones: UTC−02:00, UTC−03:00, UTC−04:00 and UTC−05:00.
Time in Chile is divided into three time zones. Most of Continental Chile uses the time offset UTC−04:00 in winter time and UTC−03:00 in summer time, while the Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica region uses the time offset UTC−03:00 the whole year. Additionally, Easter Island uses the time offset UTC−06:00 in winter time and UTC−05:00 in summer time.
Most of the United States observes daylight saving time (DST), the practice of setting the clock forward by one hour when there is longer daylight during the day, so that evenings have more daylight and mornings have less. Exceptions include Arizona, Hawaii, and the territories of American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands. The Uniform Time Act of 1966 established a uniform set of rules for states opting to observe daylight saving time.
Daylight Saving for South East Queensland (DS4SEQ) was a political party in Queensland, Australia. It was a single-issue party, run by volunteers, that advocated the introduction of Daylight Saving into Queensland, or at the very least into South East Queensland under a dual-time zone arrangement - with the remainder of the state to maintain standard time. The party proposed a possible dual time zone, which included the following 15 local and regional government areas: Brisbane, Fraser Coast, Gold Coast, Goondiwindi, Gympie, Ipswich, Lockyer, Logan, Moreton Bay, Redland, Scenic Rim, Somerset, Southern Downs, Sunshine Coast, and Toowoomba. The party was officially registered with the Electoral Commission of Queensland (ECQ) in December 2008 and was not registered with the Australian Electoral Commission. In August 2012, DS4SEQ submitted a request to the ECQ to deregister the party, and this process was finalised in October 2012. DS4SEQ maintains a presence as a lobby group and may potentially re-register as a political party in the future. Jason Furze was leader of the party from December 2008 until June 2011.
Daylight saving time (DST) is currently observed in the Australian states of New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania, and Victoria, as well as the Australian Capital Territory, Jervis Bay Territory and Norfolk Island. Other Australian jurisdictions – the states of Queensland and Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Australia's other external territories – do not observe daylight saving time.
Daylight saving time in the Americas is the arrangement in the Americas by which clocks are advanced by one hour in spring and moved back in autumn, to make the most of seasonal daylight. The practice is widespread in North America, with most of Canada and the United States participating, but much less so in Central and South America.
Parts of Australia, New Zealand and Fiji are areas of Oceania that currently observe daylight saving time (DST).
Daylight saving time (DST), also known as summer time, is the practice of advancing clocks during part of the year, typically by one hour around spring and summer, so that daylight ends at a later time of the day. As of 2024, DST is observed in most of Europe, most of North America and parts of Africa and Asia around the Northern Hemisphere summer, and in parts of South America and Oceania around the Southern Hemisphere summer. It was also formerly observed in other areas.