 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 Dates
New South Wales (including the ACT), Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania move their clocks
forward one hour for Daylight Saving (or Summertime) in October each year and
back in March/April. The dates vary
from state to state and are on the BCL what's on page for the relevant state and
month.
In 2008 the states are changing these dates.
At the time of writing, Western Australia will still put their clocks back at 3am
on Sunday 30 March 2008. Tasmania will now put their clocks back on Sunday 6
April 2008.
Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, South Australia and
Victoria will put their clocks back at 3am on Sunday
6 April 2008. From October 2008, they will start daylight saving 3 weeks
earlier, on the first Sunday in October in line with Tasmania.
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:
Brisbane and Queensland maintain 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 and hot sunlight in which they live.
The Northern Territory do not change their
clocks.
Western Australia did not have daylight saving until 2006. On 3rd
December 2006, WA commenced a 3 year trial to be followed by a referendum in
2009. In 2007, they will commence on the last Sunday in October in line with
other states.
See also Australian School Holiday Dates.
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