Australia: Time Zones and Daylight Saving

Australia has 3 different time zones :

1. Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST) : UTC + 10 hours

Queensland(QLD) , New South Wales (NSW), Victoria (VIC), Australian Capital Territory(ACT), Tasmania (TAS)

2. Australian Central Standard Time (ACST): UTC + 9.5 hours

Northern Territory(NT), South Australia,(SA) Broken Hills- NSW

3. Australian Western Standard Time (AWST): UTC + 8 hours

Western Australia(WA)

DAYLIGHT SAVING

Except Queensland and Northern Territory, all other states in Australia observe Daylight saving. Relevant State Government Authority (which can vary between states) is responsible for managing Daylight Saving Time.

Daylight saving starts from late spring (late October) and lasts till early autumn(end of March). The start and end date of it can differ from State to State. For 2007-2008, for NSW,ACT,VIC and SA the daylight savings started on 28/Oct/07 and ended on 6/Mar/08.

At the start of the daylight saving, the clocks are advanced by an hour. Normally it takes place at 0200 Local Standard Time on the day concerned.

At the end of the daylight saving, the clocks are put back an hour and that happens at Local Time 0300 on the day concerned.

When daylight saving is observed, the 'Standard' time becomes 'Daylight' time (also called Summer time or Daylight saving time)

1. Australian Eastern Daylight Time (AEDT) : UTC +11 hours

New South Wales, Victoria, Australian Capital Territory, Tasmania

2. Australian Central Daylight Time (ACDT): UTC +10.5 hours

South Australia, Broken Hills- NSW

3. Australian Western Daylight Time (AWDT): UTC +9 hours

Western Australia