Daylight savings: Do clocks go forward or back tonight? New times in NSW, Victoria, Queensland and other states

Daylight savings: Do clocks go forward or back tonight? New times in NSW, Victoria, Queensland and other states

By Pranav Harish For Daily Mail Australia

Published: 02:16 BST, 30 September 2023 | Updated: 08:51 BST, 30 September 2023

Millions of Aussies will need to change their clocks with daylight saving time about to kick in across the country, forcing many to lose an hour of sleep. 

The time will be set forward by 60 minutes in some parts of Australia from 2am to 3am on Sunday, October 1. 

Residents in in New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, the ACT, and South Australia will lose an extra hour of sleep thanks to the overnight jump in time.

Millions of Aussies will lose an hour’s sleep on Sunday with daylight savings time back until April 2024

Daylight saving will end on Sunday April 7, 2024 when those affected will gain back their hour of sleep. 

The one-hour leap forward mean Aussies get to enjoy an extra hour of sunshine to enjoy the warmer days of summer.

Not all states and territories in Australia observe daylight savings. 

Queensland, the Northern Territory, Western Australia, Christmas Island and Cocos Keeling Islands do not take part in the switch. 

The time will be changed automatically on most devices connected to the internet. 

Users will need to manually set devices such as analog clocks and older technology that displays time forward by 60 minutes. 

When daylight saving takes effect, NSW, Victoria, and Tasmania will be on Australian Eastern Daylight Time [AEDT] to indicate the easternmost time zone in Australia during the daylight savings period. 

Norfolk Island will go one hour ahead on Norfolk Island Daylight Time while South Australia will be on Australian Central Daylight Time and will remain half-an-hour behind AEDT.  

Those living in non-daylight savings jurisdictions will be behind in time from most of the eastern states. 

Queensland will be one hour behind AEDT states while the Northern Territory will be one and a half hours behind. 

Residents in WA will be three hours behind their AEDT counterparts. 

Residents in Sydney (pictured Sydney harbour) will be among the millions of Aussies who will switch to daylight savings time at 2am on Sunday morning 

Daylight saving timeline

Daylight saving was first suggested by George Vernon Hudson in 1895.

The New Zealand insect expert proposed moving the time forward by two hours in October and changing it back in March.

Port Arthur in Canada was the first place to adopt Daylight saving in 1908. 

Australia began daylight saving during World War I and World War II to conserve resources for the war effort. 

Tasmania was the first state to go one hour ahead in 1967.

Most states and territories in Australia introduced the system in 1971. 

Queensland, WA, and the Northern Territory ditched the move after trailing it for several years. 

Queensland stopped daylight saving in 1972 but tried it again between 1989 and 1992, before residents voted No in a referendum on daylight saving held in 1992.

WA ditched the time change in 2006. 

Daylight saving has been a contentious system since it was introduced during the first and second world wars. 

Most states and territories were forced to switch to daylight saving time in 1971 but Queensland ditched it the following year. 

Residents in the sunshine state remain divided over the issue but a recent survey found two thirds of Queenslanders wanted to have daylight saving time reintroduced. 

More than half the voters supported scrapping the move when Queensland held a referendum into daylight saving in 1992. 

University of Queensland senior lecturer in human geography Dr Thomas Sigler, who conducted the survey, told the Courier Mail there was strong support among residents to have daylight saving brought back.  

‘Preliminary results show 67 per cent of Queenslanders are in favour of it,’ Dr Sigler said.

‘Anything north of Bundaberg and west of Toowoomba, cut that out and 80 per cent are in favour.’

Dr Sigler said daylight saving has become a political issue instead of being a geographical one, with locals in the state’s south-east were found to be in favour of going an hour ahead. 

He said a significant cohort of the Queensland population would not have voted when the referendum was held in the 1990s, which means current views might not be reflective of the existing law. 

‘Next year literally no one under the age of 50 would have voted in that first referendum,’ he said. 

Queenslanders have had a contentious relationship with daylight saving after residents voted No in a referendum in 1992, but a new survey has found more than half of Queenslanders want the measure brought back (pictured Brisbane CBD)

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