Daylight Saving in Australia Explained: Which States Change, When, and What It Means for Calls Abroad

Which Australian states change their clocks

Daylight saving time (DST) in Australia is decided by each state and territory, not by the federal government. The result is three different outcomes. New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and South Australia all observe DST. Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia do not.

Three details trip people up. First, Broken Hill is in New South Wales but uses South Australia's time, which puts it half an hour behind Sydney. Second, Lord Howe Island, which also belongs to New South Wales, moves by only 30 minutes in summer. Third, the rules are political rather than geographic: Queensland has trialled daylight saving and rejected it at a 1992 referendum, so it stays on standard time all year.

The practical effect is that in summer, Australia has five time zones in use at once on the mainland and Tasmania: Perth, Darwin, Adelaide, Brisbane, and Sydney with Melbourne, Hobart and Canberra. In winter that falls to three, because Adelaide and Darwin share UTC+9:30 and Brisbane and Sydney share UTC+10. For the live Sydney time, see the AEST time now page.

The 2026-27 dates

Australia's DST rules are the same in each participating jurisdiction: clocks go forward on the first Sunday in October and back on the first Sunday in April. The change happens at 2:00 AM standard time, when the clocks jump to 3:00 AM, and at 3:00 AM daylight time, when they fall back to 2:00 AM.

• Daylight saving ended on Sunday, April 5, 2026 (clocks went back one hour to AEST, UTC+10).
• Daylight saving begins Sunday, October 4, 2026. Sydney moves from UTC+10 to UTC+11 (AEDT).
• Daylight saving ends Sunday, April 4, 2027. Sydney returns to UTC+10.

Because the seasons are reversed, "summer time" in Australia is what the Northern Hemisphere would call the winter. When this site says "Sydney is on AEDT" it means roughly early October to early April. As of today, November 11, 2026, Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart, Adelaide and Canberra are already on daylight time, which is why the gap between Sydney and London is currently 11 hours, rather than the 9 hours it was in July. A full list of the 2026 changes worldwide is in our daylight saving calendar.

New Zealand is a different calendar

New Zealand's daylight time starts earlier, on the last Sunday of September (September 27, 2026) and ends on the first Sunday of April (April 4, 2027, the same day as Australia). For a week in late September and early October, New Zealand is on NZDT (UTC+13) while Sydney is still on AEST (UTC+10), so the gap is three hours rather than the usual two. Check the NZST time now page if you work across the Tasman.

Sydney and Melbourne in summer: AEDT, UTC+11

In the Australian summer, from October to April, Sydney is on Australian Eastern Daylight Time, UTC+11. That is the offset that creates the largest gaps to the rest of the world: 11 hours ahead of London in the northern winter, 16 hours ahead of New York at the same time, and 5.5 hours ahead of India.

The same city's offset is UTC+10 for the other half of the year, so the numbers you remember from one half will be wrong in the other.

Why the gap to Europe takes three values

Between Sydney and London there are three possible gaps, not two. When Australia is on AEDT and Britain is on GMT, the gap is 11 hours. When Australia is on AEST and Britain on BST, it is 9 hours. And in the weeks when only one side has changed, it is 10 hours. Those one-side-has-moved periods happen in late March to early April (UK has moved forward but Australia has not yet moved back) and from early October to late October (Australia has moved forward but the UK has not yet moved back).

You can read the table by finding today's row. The gap with India is simpler: 5.5 hours when Sydney is on AEDT and 4.5 hours when it is on AEST, because India does not change. The IST time now page helps confirm the current Indian time before you do the sum.

Sydney against London, New York and India through the year

These tables show typical Sydney business hours against three destinations. The first is the Australian summer, with Sydney on AEDT and London on GMT. The second is the Australian winter, with Sydney on AEST and London on BST. The shaded rows are the best calling window.

Australian summer (Sydney AEDT, London GMT, New York EST)

Australian winter (Sydney AEST, London BST, New York EDT)

The workable overlap with London comes from Sydney's evening, not its morning. In the Australian summer, 6:00 to 8:00 PM in Sydney is 7:00 to 9:00 AM in London. In the Australian winter, 5:00 to 8:00 PM in Sydney is 8:00 to 11:00 AM in London, so that is the easier season for Sydney-London work. Sydney's morning only ever reaches London's previous evening, which is why early-morning Sydney calls with Europe feel like a late shift for the European side.

For New York there is essentially no shared working day. In December Sydney's 9:00 AM is 5:00 PM the previous day in New York, and by Sydney lunchtime it is New York's night. Teams that need both make a deliberate choice about who works outside normal hours, as covered in our remote work time zone guide.

What this means for Monday-morning calls with Europe and the US

The date line puts Australia on tomorrow's date before Europe or the US have finished today. That creates the most consistent source of confusion for anyone who works with Australia: Monday morning in Sydney is still Sunday in London and New York.

• A 9:00 AM Monday call in Sydney in December is 10:00 PM Sunday in London and 5:00 PM Sunday in New York.
• The same call in July is midnight (12:00 AM Monday) in London on BST and 7:00 PM Sunday in New York on EDT.
• A 5:00 PM Friday call in Sydney in December is 6:00 AM Friday in London and 1:00 AM Friday in New York.

If someone writes "see you Monday at 9" in an email between Sydney and London, ask which Monday and which city. A UK colleague who says "Sunday evening your time" and a Sydney colleague who says "Monday morning my time" are describing the same moment. Writing the date, the weekday and the time zone abbreviation for both parties avoids the whole problem.

Which side takes the pain

Most teams split it. When the Australian winter and the British summer coincide, a 5:00 PM Sydney call lands at 8:00 AM in London and neither side is uncomfortable. In the opposite season the gap is 11 hours, so Sydney's 6:00 PM is only 7:00 AM in London, and someone has to be early or late. Rotating who takes the awkward slot keeps it fair.

The US West Coast is harder still. Sydney's Monday 9:00 AM is Sunday 2:00 PM in Los Angeles in December and Sunday 4:00 PM in July. The best overlap is the US late afternoon, which is the next morning in Sydney: in December, 4:00 PM in Los Angeles is 11:00 AM the next day in Sydney.

Queensland, Darwin and Perth

If your Australian colleague is in Brisbane, Darwin or Perth, nothing changes in October. That has a consequence you may not expect: Brisbane and Sydney share a clock in winter and are an hour apart in summer, even though both are described as eastern Australia. A Sydney colleague and a Brisbane colleague can sit on the same Teams call and be an hour apart on the clock for half the year. Perth is two hours behind Sydney in winter and three in summer; Darwin is half an hour behind Brisbane all year and 1.5 hours behind Sydney in summer.

Practical rules for calendars and invites

Four habits reduce nearly all Australian scheduling errors.

1. Name the city, not the abbreviation. "Sydney time" is unambiguous. AEST is strictly the winter name; in summer Sydney is on AEDT, yet many people write AEST all year, and an entry typed as AEST in December is an hour wrong.
2. Put the date and weekday next to the time. A Monday morning in Sydney will otherwise read as a Sunday evening in the other person's calendar.
3. Check the first Sunday of October and April. Recurring meetings between Australia and the northern hemisphere shift by an hour in both directions, and they do so at slightly different dates from the UK and US changes. The weeks in between are where invites go wrong. The daylight saving guide by country lists every change in one place.
4. Verify with a converter that uses the real time zone database. Hand arithmetic is how a 10-hour week turns into a missed meeting.

A converter handles the changes for you, but it only helps if you give it the right city. "Sydney" and "Brisbane" are different entries for good reason.

Frequently Asked Questions