Australia’s Daylight Saving Starts on October 4, 2009

Many places in Australia will observe daylight saving time (DST) on Sunday, October 4, 2009, when the clocks move one hour forward from 2am (02:00) to 3am (03:00) local time. This coincides with the Labour Day* long weekend in the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales and South Australia in 2009.

Synchronized DST Schedule

The following states and territory observe DST in Australia:

• Australian Capital Territory.
• New South Wales.
• South Australia.
• Tasmania.
• Victoria.

DST is synchronized across these states and territory. The DST schedule in these parts of Australia begins at 2am (02:00) on first Sunday of October, when the clocks move forward by one hour to 3am (03:00) local time. DST ends at 3am (03:00) when the clocks move back to 2am (02:00) local time on the first Sunday of April. Australia’s DST schedule will end on Sunday, April 4, 2010. Lord Howe Island also observes DST.

Places Without DST

Western Australia no longer observes DST after a proposal to continue the state’s DST trial was rejected in a referendum in May 2009. Queensland and the Northern Territory do not observe daylight saving.

Many people living in the Gold Coast region, in south-east Queensland, pushed for DST in south-east Queensland. Many people living on one side of the Queensland-New South Wales border in this area split their time schedules if their school, work or other commitments are on the other side of the border. One of the affected towns at the heart the border includes Tweed Heads. Various community leaders and politicians have commented about this issue but nothing has been done.

Time Zones

Mainland Australia has three time zones:

• Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST), which is 10 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC+10). AEST applies to: New South Wales except Yancowinna County, which includes the city of Broken Hill; Victoria; Queensland; Tasmania; and the Australian Capital Territory. During daylight saving time, AEST becomes Australian Eastern Daylight Time (AEDT) and clocks are advanced to UTC+11. Not all states (eg. Queensland) in eastern Australia observe daylight saving time.
• Australian Central Standard Time (ACST), which is UTC+9:30, and applies to: South Australia; the Northern Territory; and Yancowinna County, which includes the city of Broken Hill, in New South Wales. During daylight saving time, ACST becomes Australian Central Daylight Time (ACDT), and clocks are advanced to UTC +10:30. The Northern Territory does not observe daylight saving time.
• Australian Western Standard Time (AWST), which is UTC+8, and applies to Western Australia.

Many South Australian businesses pushed for the state to follow AEST in the non-daylight saving period and AEDT during daylight saving time so they could be in more line with business operating hours in Australia’s eastern regions. However, this time zone change has not occurred.