Time in Australia
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Standard time was introduced into Australia in the 1890's when all the then colonies adopted standard times. Before the switch to standard times, each local municipality was free to determine its own local time, called local mean time.
Australia has three standard time zones: eastern (UTC+10), central (UTC+9:30) and western (UTC+8).[1] There are also some areas using an unofficial "central western" zone (UTC+8:45). Most Australian external territories also observe different time zones.
The proper 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 in speech though the abbreviations remain.
New South Wales (NSW), the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), Victoria (Vic), Tasmania and South Australia observe daylight saving time every year. Western Australia also observes daylight saving time on a trial basis. Queensland and Northern Territory do not have daylight saving.
Though each State and Territory has the sole responsibility in respect to time within its jurisdiction, the standard time within each State and Territory is set in relation to the "Co-ordinated Universal Time", which is determined by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures and maintained under section 8AA of the National Measurement Act 1960 of the Commonwealth.
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[edit] 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 advanced Central Standard Time by thirty minutes. (Attempts in 1986 and 1994 to revert or to add another thirty minutes failed.)
When the Northern Territory separated from South Australia they retained Central Standard Time, and likewise when the Australian Capital Territory was created they retained Eastern Standard Time.
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.
Some towns on the Eyre Highway in the south-east corner of Western Australia, from the South Australian border almost to Caiguna, use an unofficial time zone - Central Western Standard Time - which is 45 minutes ahead of the official Western Standard Time.
[edit] State legislation
Western Standard Time (AWST) - UTC+8 hours
- Western Australia - Standard Time Act 2005 [2]
Central Standard Time (ACST)- UTC+9:30 hours
- South Australia - The Standard Time Act 1898 [3]
- Northern Territory - Standard Time Act 2005 [4]
Eastern Standard Time (AEST) - UTC+10 hours
- Queensland - Standard Time Act 1894 [5]
- New South Wales - Standard Time Act 1987 No 149 [6]
- Australian Capital Territory - Standard Time and Summer Time Act 1972 [7]
- Victoria - Summer Time Act 1972 [8]
- Tasmania - Standard Time Act 1895 [9]
[edit] 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 travelling between Kalgoorlie and Port Augusta which was UTC+9 hours during November 2005 when daylight saving time was observed in the east. This was because of the 2 1/2 hour difference in times between South Australia and Western Australia until December 2006.
[edit] External territories
Australia's many external territories follow their own time zones.
[edit] Daylight saving time
The choice to use daylight saving time or not is a matter for the individual states and territories.
New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia observe daylight saving time every year. This has resulted in three time zones becoming five during the daylight saving period. South Australia time becomes UTC+10:30, called Central Summer Time (CST) or Central Daylight Time (CDT), possibly with "Australia" prefixed (ACST or ACDT). The time in the southeastern states become UTC+11, using "Eastern" in the time zone name rather than "Central", with the abbreviations being EST, EDT, AEST, or AEDT.
Officially, the change to and from DST takes place at 2:00 am local standard time (which is 3:00 am daylight saving time) on the appropriate Sunday.
Western Australia is operating daylight saving time in a trial period from the spring 2006 until autumn 2009 [10], 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). There was a debate over whether the referendum should be held in 2007 before 2009, as in 2007 favour had begun to swing sharply against daylight saving time according to the polls at that time (with the Liberals and Nationals against the practice, and Labor undecided).[citation needed]
Of the states that observe daylight saving time, most began on the last Sunday in October, and ended on the last Sunday in March, until 2008. In 2006, the state of Western Australia began its trial late on 3 December. In 2007 and 2008, it was in line with the Eastern states. An exception was the state of Tasmania, which (due to its southern latitude) began daylight saving time earlier, on the first Sunday in October, and ended on the first Sunday of April.
On 12 April 2007, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania and the ACT agreed to a common starting and finishing dates for daylight saving time. Commencing from the 2007/08 period, the start of DST in these States and in South Australia will be the first Sunday in October and end on the first Sunday in April, the same as in Tasmania. Western Australia has not amended its currently legislated times/dates, DST ending on the last Sunday of March.
Queensland (AEST) and Northern Territory (ACST) do not change to DST.
| State/Territory | Start of DST | End of DST |
|---|---|---|
| Western Australia | last Sunday in October | last Sunday in March |
| South Australia | first Sunday in October | first Sunday in April |
| Northern Territory | N/A | N/A |
| Queensland | N/A | N/A |
| New South Wales | first Sunday in October | first Sunday in April |
| Australian Capital Territory | first Sunday in October | first Sunday in April |
| Victoria | first Sunday in October | first Sunday in April |
| Tasmania | first Sunday in October | first Sunday in April |
[edit] Debate over daylight saving time
Public opinion on daylight saving time in Queensland is divided. People and businesses in the Queensland-New South Wales border area complain of the inconvenience caused by the difference in time at the border. Queensland and the Northern Territory have not adopted daylight saving because the seasonal differences in daylight become less pronounced as one moves closer to the equator. Former Queensland Premier Peter Beattie claimed that daylight savings in Queensland would increase the rate of skin cancer in the state, a claim to which there is no evidence according to the Queensland Cancer Fund.[2]
Western Australia has also had a debate over daylight saving time, with the issue being put to a plebiscite three times: in 1975, 1984 and 1992. All were defeated. Daylight saving time has been tried in the state on various occasions. The parliament of Western Australia has passed legislation to try daylight saving time again beginning 3 December 2006 and lasting three years, at the end of which a plebiscite will be held to decide the fate of daylight saving time in the state until the issue arises again. The Daylight Saving Bill (No. 2) 2006 was passed in the Legislative Assembly of the Parliament of Western Australia on 31 October 2006 and in the Legislative Council on 21 November. 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 plebiscite.
[edit] Special events
In 2000, all eastern jurisdictions 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 jurisdictions changed on 27 August 2000. South Australia did not change until the regular time, which that year was on 29 October 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 2 April 2006.
[edit] 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 formal basis for the standard times of all 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 Earth's rotation rate that are inherent to mean solar time. All States have adopted the UTC standard, commencing from 1 September 2005.
[edit] Rules relating to time
In most cases the time when something needs to be done is clear: standard times or the daylight saving times set under State laws will operate.
The rule is that if something needs to be done by a particular time, it is for the person who is required to perform that act to have it completed by that time. For example, if a person making an offer (the "offeror") to, say, sell something and specifies a time by which this offer must be accepted, the person accepting the offer must convey that acceptance to the offeror where the offeror is located and at the time specified by the offeror, where the offeror is located. This has significance when the local time of the two parties is different.
As a general rule, the person required to perform an act (eg pay some money) must make sure that the act is performed by that time. If he cannot perform that act by that time because, say, the office where the money needs to be paid is closed because of a weekend or public holiday, then that person must perform that act before the office closes. This applies especially to government offices, which are open only during specified times.
It is also common to specify in contracts that if the time when an act needs to be performed falls on a weekend or a public holiday, then that act needs to be performed on the next business day.
[edit] National times
However, there are situations where a nation-wide time operates. In the case of business activities a national time, in effect, operates. For example, a prospectus for the issue of shares in a company would usually set out the closing time for offers at some location (eg Sydney) as the time when offers must be received, irrespective of the source of the offer. Similarly, tenders usually set out the time at a particular location by which they must be received to be considered. Another example is the Australian Stock Exchange which, in effect, operates on AEST.
On the other hand, Commonwealth legislation yields to State regulated standard times in many diverse situations. It yields, for example, in setting normal working times of Commonwealth employees, recognition of public holidays, etc. Significantly, it also relies on local time for federal elections, so that polling times in Western Australia close, in effect, two hours after those in the east coast States. Similarly, documents to be filed in a Federal Court may be filed based on local time; with the effect that if there was a failure to lodge a document on time in an eastern State, the document may still be lodged (within two hours) in Western Australia.
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ Official government website[1]
- ^ "Daylight saving cancer claim disputed", The Sydney Morning Herald, Fairfax Media, 2006-10-24. Retrieved on 2007-07-07. (English)
[edit] 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.
[edit] External links
- Information on time zones from official Government web site
