Australia - Time Zones & Daylight Saving (Summertime)

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Australian Time Zones

The size of Australia means that we have three times zones. 

Eastern states - Queensland, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria and Tasmania - are on Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST) which is GMT plus 10 hours. 

South Australia and the Northern Territory are on Australian Central Standard Time (ACST) which is GMT plus 9.5 hours.

Western Australia is on Australian Western Standard Time (AWST) which is GMT plus 8 hours. 

Australian Daylight Saving (summer time) Dates

New South Wales (including the ACT), Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania move their clocks forward one hour on the first Sunday in October and back one hour on the first Sunday in April.

Western Australia had a three year daylight saving trial from 2006 to 2009. They voted against daylight saving in 2009 and now maintain Western Standard Time all year round.

Queensland maintains Eastern Standard Time all year round. This causes much debate every year in the south-eastern corner of the state, and particularly on the Gold Coast which straddles the border. However, much of Queensland is in the tropics where residents have no desire to change their clocks in order to increase the amount of daylight, hot sunlight and UV rays that they, and their children, are exposed to. Skin cancer is common in the topics and subtropics.

The Northern Territory do not change their clocks.

What to do to changeover:

• The night before the start of daylight savings time, set your clocks forward one hour.
• The night before the end of daylight savings time, set your clocks back one hour

You can get the latest changes using these links direct to the relevant page of the official state government sites for past and projected daylight saving start and finish dates: 

• Daylight Saving in New South Wales
• Daylight Saving in Victoria 
• Daylight Saving in Tasmania
• South Australian Daylight Saving Dates 

See also Australian School Holiday Dates.