Time in Australia

Australia uses three main time zones: Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST; UTC+10:00), Australian Central Standard Time (ACST; UTC+09:30) and Australian Western Standard Time (AWST; UTC+08:00).^[1]

Time is regulated by the individual state governments,^[2] some of which observe daylight saving time (DST). Daylight saving time (+1 hour) is used between the first Sunday in October and the first Sunday in April in jurisdictions in the south and south-east:

• New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, Jervis Bay Territory and the Australian Capital Territory switches to the Australian Eastern Daylight Saving Time (AEDT; UTC+11:00), and
• South Australia switches to the Australian Central Daylight Saving Time (ACDT; UTC+10:30).

Standard time was introduced in the 1890s when all of the Australian colonies adopted it. Before the switch to standard time zones, each local city or town was free to determine its local time, called local mean time. Now, Western Australia uses Western Standard Time; South Australia and the Northern Territory use Central Standard Time; while New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania, Victoria, Jervis Bay Territory, and the Australian Capital Territory use Eastern Standard Time. Daylight saving time is not currently used in Western Australia, the Northern Territory, or Queensland.

The Cocos (Keeling) Islands uses UTC+06:30 year round, Christmas Island uses UTC+07:00 year round, while Norfolk Island uses UTC+11:00 as standard time and UTC+12:00 as daylight saving time.