Time zones
With a land mass close to 7.7 million square kilometres, Australia is the world’s sixth largest country and is divided into three separate time zones.
Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST)
Covers the eastern states of Queensland, New South Wales (with the exception of the town of Broken Hill), Victoria, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory.
AEST is equal to Coordinated Universal Time plus 10 hours (UTC +10).
Australian Central Standard Time (ACST)
Covers the state of South Australia, the town of Broken Hill in western New South Wales and the Northern Territory.
ACST is equal to Coordinated Universal Time plus 9.5 hours (UTC +9.5).
Australian Western Standard Time (AWST)
Covers Western Australia.
AWST is equal to Coordinated Universal Time plus 8 hours (UTC +8).
Daylight saving
Daylight Saving Time (DST) is the practice of advancing clocks one hour during the warmer months of the year. In Australia, Daylight saving is observed in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, and the Australian Capital Territory.
Daylight Saving Time begins at 2am on the first Sunday in October, when clocks are put forward one hour. It ends at 2am (which is 3am Daylight Saving Time) on the first Sunday in April, when clocks are put back one hour.
Where Daylight saving is observed:
NSW, ACT,Vic and Tas move from AEST to Australian Eastern Daylight Time (AEDT), and clocks are advanced to UTC +11.
SA and the NSW town of Broken Hill move from ACST to Australian Central Daylight Time (ACDT), and clocks are advanced to UTC +10.5 .
Daylight saving is not observed in Queensland, the Northern Territory or Western Australia.
Information sourced from: http://australia.gov.au
© Commonwealth of Australia 2014