Agreed, half hour time zones are a joke though, and they should be on +9/10 in DST.
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I was under the impression that Queensland has only ever had a few referendums on Daylight Saving. Also the last one was, what…almost 30 years ago?
WA had one a bit more recently but there’s less need for DST over there anyway as the state is pretty well isolated from the rest of Australia.
While from a Sydney perspective I’d love to have DST all year-round, or from September to May at the very least…
This is also a very valid point.
We’ll never have year round or extended DST because people generally want the sun to rise around if not before 7am at any time of year, no matter what. Of course never mind the facts that days are always going to be longer in Summer/shorter in Winter + ever extending commute times (especially in and around the most populated metropolitan areas of the country) meaning there are probably plenty of people who have to wake up in darkness all year round except maybe the height of Summer when most are usually on holidays anyway…
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They keep having arguments about daylight saving in Queensland on a yearly basis usually when the government wants to hide something and change the news cycle for a day. I doubt very much will change. It may change in the South East but not in the north. Is it really a big inconvenience to most people? I have family in Queensland it does not a big deal at all.
Time zones and Daylight Savings are about convenience for local residents.
As @SydneyCityTV said, in some places DST year round would work, in others it would be terrible.
This Saturday, the last morning with DST, sunrise in Canberra will be at 07:18 AEDT, so for here I wouldn’t want DST to go any longer.
On 21 and 22 June sunrise will be 07:12 and sunset at 16:58 AEST.
While I wouldn’t object to the sun setting at 17:58, it not rising until 08:12 doesn’t sound good, especially with Canberra’s freezing winter mornings.
Changing clocks twice a year isn’t a great inconvenience; most things change automatically now, and it happens on Sunday morning. The months-long benefits outweigh the small one-day negative.
Although I don’t see a particular benefit closer to the equator, what’s the great negative?
Changing clocks a couple of times isn’t a big deal.
How would day-to-day life be worse during DST in North Qld, NT, etc?
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It will be interesting to see how the DLS argument goes in QLD over the next few years given they really want the Olympics.
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Given the Olympics are to be held in late July - early August, I don’t see what difference it would make to any daylight savings discussions.
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Queensland has had one single referendum, which was 29 years ago in 1992.
QLD did have daylight saving for one summer during the 1970s but it was removed as the premier at the time did not like it, there was no referendum.
Everyone under the age of 47 in Queensland right now has never had a say on the issue.
A quick search on the internet tells me that the median age of a person living in Queensland in 2019 was 37.4 years, so that’s the vast majority of people who have never had a say.
The referendum result was 54.5% No, 46.5% Yes. From what I have read in the past, it is hypothesised that with more people living in the Brisbane area now if the referendum was repeated it would almost definitely return a Yes result. I don’t remember where I read this as it was a few years ago, but the article theorised that this is why no government will touch it, as they know it will likely return a Yes result and they know that will likely jeopardise their votes in regional QLD.
The other difference with WA is that Perth is usually the last location to experience sunset, as it at the western side of the state. The sun sets in Perth later than most of the rest of the state. So the push from Perth probably isn’t that great.
Whereas, in QLD, Brisbane is typically the first place to experience sunrise/sunset, being at the most eastern point of the state, so the push from Brisbane is greater than anywhere else as they would see the most benefit.
This year is my first year living with DST as I now live in Canberra and I think DST is fantastic, and I have to say I’m not looking forward to it ending this Sunday.
It has been a little annoying waking up for work in the dark recently, with sunrise around 7:15am, but I think the benefit of it not getting properly dark until around 7:30pm outweighs that morning inconvenience for me personally.
Of course, sunrise at 8:12am in Winter doesn’t sound that appealing and I don’t think year-round DST would be a good idea for that reason, but I personally wouldn’t mind if it went on for a little while longer than ending this Sunday. I would happily trial year-round DST for a year to see what it is like.
Having lived in North QLD for many years, it wouldn’t have any impact.
Most of the hatred for DST up there is purely due to unsubstantiated propaganda.
From my experience, a lot of people in North QLD have very little to no experience with DST. So all they know about it is what they’ve heard from word-of-mouth, and it’s kind of developing into this chinese whispers type thing.
I think I’ve posted about this here before, but I can remember quite a few years ago there was some debate amongst the media about DST and a former mayor of Townsville was on the local news saying “we don’t want the sun setting at 10pm” and that’s the narrative that has existed in Townsville ever since. (The latest sunset in Townsville with DST would be 7:56pm FYI).
I have actually argued with someone before, who swears that during the 1990s referendum it was still daylight at 10pm. The narrative is so ingrained up there it is unbelievable.
The other issue that I’ve come across a lot is people genuinely believing that DST will make the sunrise 1 hour earlier and set 1 hour later. It sounds ridiculous but there is a large number of people up there that believe this is the case. They then claim that with all that extra daylight, it will be hotter and use that as an excuse.
I don’t think it will ever be successful in NQ because there’s this well ingrained propaganda narrative that most people believe to be true.
In terms of the Northern Territory, most people don’t realise that Darwin is effectively on year-round DST already.
Solar noon in Darwin is 1:00pm in Summer and around 12:50pm in Winter, so they are basically already using year-round DST.
You don’t hear any complaining from anyone up there about the timezone though, I think that proves that there is really no impact on NQ/WA if they did have DST.
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Not looking forward to it ending tomorrow but I do feel like it goes for a week too long. It used to end on the last Sunday in March but now this extra week just feels extra dark in the mornings for us since it changed.
This morning sunrise for us was 7:30am and sunset is now about 7pm. On our shortest day sunrise will be about 7:40am and sunset at 4:50pm, so with year round daylight saving it would be near near 9am for sunrise and still dark before 6 so no real benefit of year round for Tas but we do have the greatest benefit of any state for the summer period.
In random news, 15 years ago was the first time that the extended daylight saving period happened for the Melbourne Commonwealth Games before changing permanently a few years later. I only remember because that was my wedding night and what else was there to do on a wedding night than think about the unique daylight saving situation.
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DLS should definitely be all year round. I’d much rather have an hour of daylight after work than before work. What good is sun in the morning?
Should be done this year to help covid affected sectors. I know when I worked in hospitality, business fell off a cliff once dls ended.
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I agree just keep it so we have more sun in the evening all year round.
Yes they should’ve kept DST ending on the last Sunday in March, but it’s only a week.
I still remember the crazy early start of DST in 2000 because of the Sydney Olympic Games in September.
That was definitely too early. Damn US TV companies (apparently).
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Hey Queensland…
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Fellow MediaSpyers,
If you are in NSW/ACT, VIC, TAS or SA, please remember to put your non smart clocks BACK one hour tonight or when you wake up in the morning.
This has been a MediaSpy community service announcement. No classification warning or watermark required.
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Sa that year did not do it there a big backlash from i can remember
Thanks! This is my first time “falling back” now that I live away from QLD, and i’m definitely not looking forward to it getting dark so early in the evenings.
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Enjoy the extra hour sleep though. Welcome to the DST experience.
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No comprende.
Unless you have kids… Then it just means they’ll be up an hour earlier… and being Easter an hour earlier than that!
10:40am - kinda feels like later and I’m ready for a nap.
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And filled with sugar. Have fun parents! 
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Thanks! Happy to be a part of the experience.
Unfortunately I didn’t get an extra hour of sleep. I still naturally woke up at the same time, it was just that it was 7am and not 8am like I was waking up the past few days.
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