Time in Australia
In mainland Australia, the keeping of standard time is divided into three time zones: eastern (UTC+10), central (UTC+9:30) and western (UTC+8). There are also some areas using an unofficial "central western" zone (UTC+8:45). Most Australian external territories also observe different time zones. Many Australian locations observe daylight saving time.
The full names of Australia's time zones vary. In international contexts they are often called Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST), Australian Central Standard Time (ACST) and Australian Western Standard Time (AWST), and Australian Central Western Standard Time (ACWST). In domestic contexts the leading "Australian" is often dropped, and the time zones abbreviations become EST, CST, WST, and CWST.
Time zones
The standardization of time in Australia began in 1892, when surveyors from the Australian colonies gathered 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, and in line with common practice in other parts of the world, devised a system of time zones with offsets in multiples of one hour from GMT. The colonies enacted legislation to this effect, which took effect in February 1895. Western Australia led GMT by 8 hours, South Australia by 9 hours, and Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania by 10 hours. The three time zones became known as Western, Central and Eastern Standard Time.
In May 1899, South Australia moved its standard time to GMT+9:30. Though widespread at the time, non-integer number of hours offset has at times been subject to criticism, with unsuccessful proposals in 1986 and 1994 to adopt GMT+10 or revert to GMT+9 in South Australia.
Since that time, the only major change has been the adoption of Central Standard Time in Broken Hill, New South Wales, and the use of GMT+10:30 on Lord Howe Island.
The Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory maintained the standard time zones of their parent states (New South Wales and South Australia) when they separated from them in 1910 and 1911.
Anomalies
The town of Broken Hill (specified as Yancowinna County), in far-western New South Wales, follows South Australian time.
Some towns on the Eyre Highway in the south-east corner of Western Australia, between the South Australian border almost as far as Caiguna, do not follow official Western Australian time. Instead, they use what is unofficially known as Central Western Standard Time, which was originally halfway between Western and Central time--UTC+8:45. The area maintained its fixed offset from UTC when daylight saving time was introduced in South Australia. Now that Western Australia is also observing DST on a trial basis, the Central Western area is also setting its clocks ahead an hour during local summer.
Towns following this zone include Madura, Mundrabilla, Eucla and Border Village in South Australia. The total population of the area is estimated at 200. Border sign
The Indian Pacific train has its own time zone - a so-called "train time" when traveling between Kalgoorlie and Port Augusta which was UTC+9 hours during November 2005 when daylight saving time was observed in the east. This is because of the 2 1/2 hour difference in times between South Australia and Western Australia.
External territories
Australia's many external territories follow their own time zones. Only two follow daylight saving time.
| Territory | Standard | DST | DST duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heard and McDonald Islands | UTC+5 | N/A | |
| Cocos (Keeling) Islands | UTC+6:30 | N/A | |
| Christmas Island CXT | UTC+7 | N/A | |
| Macquarie Island | UTC+10 | UTC+11 | Same as Tasmania |
| Lord Howe Island | UTC+10:30 | UTC+11 | Same as New South Wales |
| Norfolk Island NFT | UTC+11:30 | N/A | |
| Australian Antarctic Territory - Mawson | UTC+6 | N/A | |
| Australian Antarctic Territory - Davis | UTC+7 | N/A | |
| Australian Antarctic Territory - Casey | UTC+8 | N/A |
Daylight saving time
South Australia, New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria and Tasmania observe daylight saving time every year . This has resulted in three time zones becoming five for half the year. South Australia follows UTC+10:30, calling it Central Summer Time (CST) or Central Daylight Time (CDT), possibly with "Australia" prefixed (ACST or ACDT); the southeastern states follow UTC+11, using "Eastern" in the time zone name rather than "Central", with the abbreviation being EST, EDT, AEST, or AEDT.
Western Australia is operating daylight saving time in a trial period from the spring 2006 until autumn 2009, after which a referendum will be held to determine if it should be put in place permanently. While daylight saving time is in effect, time in Western Australia is one hour ahead of Western Standard Time (so it will be UTC+9). However, there is debate over whether the referendum should be held in 2007 or 2009, as favour has begun to swing against daylight saving time (with the Liberals and Nationals against the practice, and Labor undecided).[citation needed]
Of the states that observe daylight saving time, most begin on the last Sunday in October at 2:00 am local standard time, and end on the last Sunday in March at 3:00 am local daylight saving time. An exception to this is the island state of Tasmania, which (due to its southern latitude) begins daylight saving time earlier, on the first Sunday in October at 2:00 am local standard time. In 2006, the state of Western Australia began its trial late on 3 December.
On April 12 2007, the Premiers of New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and the Chief Minister of the ACT agreed to pursue common starting and finishing dates for daylight saving time. At this stage the duration is planned to be from the first Sunday in October to the first Sunday in April, the same as in Tasmania. South Australia is as yet undecided if it will join in, and Western Australia has said it will not change its currently legislated times.[1]
Debate over daylight saving time
Public opinion of daylight saving time in Queensland is divided. The Queensland-New South Wales border area is heavily populated and as a result businesses suffer inconvenience by the difference in time. Generally, the urban south east corner would prefer daylight saving time, and the rural towns and farming regions elsewhere are against it.
This is to be expected, given that seasonal differences in daylight become more pronounced as one moves further away from the equator.
Western Australia has also had much debate over daylight saving time, with the issue being put to referendum three times in 1975, 1984 and 1992, being defeated all three times. Daylight saving time has been tried in the state on various occasions. The government of Western Australia has passed legislation to try daylight saving time again beginning December 3 2006 and lasting three years, at the end of which a referendum would be held to decide the final fate of daylight saving time in the state. The Daylight Saving Bill (No. 2) 2006 was passed in the Legislative Assembly of the Parliament of Western Australia on October 31 2006 and in the Legislative Council on November 21. This timeframe allowed only 12 days for computer systems administrators, and operating system manufacturers, to test, release and install a patch to handle the time changes. This bill was subject to widespread controversy, as this is the fourth time the WA Government has instigated a trial of Daylight Saving Time with a referendum. More than four trials have occured, with the WA Government voting on the result.
Special events
In 2000, all eastern states that normally observe daylight saving time — New South Wales, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and Tasmania — started daylight saving time early, due to the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. These states changed on the August 27 2000. South Australia did not change until the regular time, which that year was on the October 29 2000.
In 2006, all states that followed daylight saving time (the above listed states plus South Australia) delayed the return to their respective Standard Times by a week, due to the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. Daylight saving time ended on April 2 2006.
Accuracy and standards
Although Australia has maintained a version of the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) atomic time scale since the 1990s, Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) remained the basis for the standard time of all states until 2005. In November 2004, the Attorneys General endorsed a proposal from the Australian National Measurement Institute to adopt UTC as the basis of all Australian standard times, thereby eliminating the effects of slight variations in the Earth's rotation rate that are inherent to mean solar time. New South Wales and Victoria enacted legislation to this effect, commencing on September 1 2005. Other states are expected to follow.
Notes
- ^ Davis, Mark (2007-04-13). "Fading curtains alert: more daylight saving on the way". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. Retrieved 2007-04-13.
References
- The Australian National Time System National Standards Commission Leaflet No. 8, January 2003. Linked via Wayback machine
- NSW Legislative Council Hansard, 2 March 2005
- Daylight Saving Petitions
- Daylight Saving Time History of daylight saving time implementation dates at the Bureau of Meteorology website.