Go Study Australia

Australia, being a very large continent, is crossed by three different time zones.

Calculating the time zone difference between Australia and your own country can be a little complicated as there are some factors to consider.

UTC- COORDINATED UNIVERSAL TIME

Some Australian states and territories use daylight savings time from the first Sunday in October to the first Sunday in April. However, this is not the case in all Australian states. The states that adopt the time difference (moving the watch hand one hour ahead) are New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT.

In Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory the time of day always stays the same.

Therefore, during the Australian summer, a puzzling situation is created: Sydney is an hour ahead of Brisbane, even though Brisbane is geographically further east! With summertime also coming into force in Europe, this helps to influence the time zone between our home countries and Australia.

Some examples of the time differences across Australia are:

  • Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST) *UTC +10 hours in the states of New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT).
  • Australian Central Standard Time (ACST) *UTC + 9½ hours in South Australia, Broken Hill in East New South Wales and the Northern Territory.
  • Australian Western Standard Time (AWST) *UTC + 8 hours, in the state of Western Australia.