As October begins, love it or hate it, so too does daylight saving.
Each year, the clocks move forward on the first Sunday of October – but only for about half the states.
Sydney and Melbourne will remain in sync but Brisbane will be left behind. Perth, which is ordinarily hours behind the east coast, will lag even further, while communities on the Queensland-New South Wales border will begin their annual six-month headache.
It’s controversial among Queenslanders and sleep scientists. But others love it – and vets say animals just get on with it, being “much more pragmatic than humans are”.
When does daylight savings start in Australia?
Time will jump forward an hour when the clock strikes 2am on Sunday. That means when local standard time is about to reach 2am, clocks are turned forward one hour to 3am local time instead.
Australians living in states and territories observing daylight saving will effectively lose an hour, but gain extra sunlight in the evenings.
Sunrise and sunset will be about one hour later on 6 October than the day before. But as summer approaches, there will be increasingly more light in the evening and less light in the morning.
Daylight saving will end (and the clocks will go back an hour) the first Sunday of April – 6 April 2025.
Where does daylight saving time apply?
Daylight saving time (DST) is used in the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania.
Western Australia, Queensland and Northern Territory don’t use DST
Why is it still controversial?
Daylight saving is most controversial in Queensland, the only jurisdiction on the east coast that doesn’t wind the clock forward by one hour in spring and back by one hour in autumn. The state trialled DST for three years before it held a referendum on the subject in 1992. In the tightly contested vote, 54.5% of Queenslanders voted against daylight saving and 45.5% voted in favour. As our columnist Gabrielle Chan explains, “in Queensland, it borders on a culture war” – the south-eastern part of the state has voted in far greater numbers in favour of DST compared to the rest of the state.
It is also controversial among Australia’s rural populations, including the NSW Farmers Association, which recently voted in support of a campaign to clip the hours of daylight saving.
Daylight saving makes less and less sense the closer you get to the equator, because there is less variation in daylight hours as seasons change in the tropics, according to veterinarian Dr Joanne Sillince, the CEO of the Australian Chicken Growers Council. “At the equator the sun goes up and down the same time each day. Daylight saving works best where day lengths are the longest, which is the further north and south you go.”
Is it also controversial around the world?
Most Europeans and Americans observe daylight saving, but the Pew Research Centre says they are “more the exception than the rule” and that most countries do not observe DST.
Professional scientific societies that study biological rhythms, including the American Society of Sleep Medicine, the Society for Research on Biological Rhythms and the European Society for Sleep Research, have called to abolish daylight saving time because of the health burdens associated with it.
Queensland University researchers say DST disrupts the balance whereby the sunrise’s brightness helps people wake and the evening’s darkening promotes sleep. Daylight saving can lead to delayed bedtimes, which in turn can lead to inadequate sleep, which has been associated with decreased attention, increased metabolic and cardiovascular issues, mood disorders and even a shortened lifespan.
How does it affect animals? Why does it affect pets?
Despite the claims of the former Queensland premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen, who said daylight saving confused milking cows, Sillince – who is also the managing director of Pets Australia – says animals are not affected because their body clocks are determined by when the sun goes up and down. “But they are sensitive to the change in behaviour of their human companion,” she says. “If you’re a dog or a cat you’re about to get fed an hour earlier. My home-based animals love daylight saving.
“A long history of experience with all species is that they adjust a lot quicker than the humans do,” Sillince says. “Animals are much more pragmatic than humans are. They really don’t mind as long as the food keeps coming and the water is clean and they’re treated with respect.”
