Your guide to time zones in Australia

Planning a trip Down Under or hopping between Aussie states? You’ll want to know about Australia’s different time zones to dodge any booking mishaps and avoid showing up an hour too early. Here’s our handy guide to navigating the time differences across each state and territory, including that sneaky one-hour time shift observed in some Australian states during daylight saving. 

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What time zone is Australia in?

Time zones vary across Australian states and territories, with additional changes in some states during daylight saving, which is observed from October to April. 

How many time zones are there in Australia?

Australia has three main time zones:

• Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST) – ACT, NSW, QLD, VIC, TAS
• Australian Central Standard Time (ACST) – NT, SA and Broken Hill in NSW (30 minutes behind AEST)
• Australian Western Standard Time (AWST) – WA (two hours behind AEST)

Two other time zones to be aware of are:

• Australian Central Western Standard Time (ACWST) – Eluca, WA (45 minutes ahead of AWST)
• Lorde Howe Standard Time (LHST) – Lord Howe Island (30 minutes ahead of AEST)

What is a UTC time zone?

UTC stands for Coordinate Universal Time and is the 24-hour time standard used to regulate clocks around the world. All time zones are defined by their offset from UTC, expressed as either UTC- or UTC+ and followed by the number of hours and minutes. In Australia, the offsets are:

• AWST = UTC +8
• ACWST = UTC +8.45
• ACST = UTC +9.5
• AEST = UTC +10
• LHST = UTC +10.30

How does daylight saving affect time zones in Australia?

Daylight Saving Time (DST) is observed in the ACT, NSW, SA, TAS and VIC. However, DST is not used in NT, QLD and WA. 

During Daylight Saving Time (DST), we move our clocks forward by an hour in spring (from 2am on the first Sunday in October) and move them back an hour in autumn (from 2am on the first Sunday in April). As a result, some Australian time zones have a different UTC-offset and time zone name for DST:

• Australian Eastern Daylight Time (AEDT) – UTC +10.30 (ACT, NSW, VIC, TAS)
• Australian Central Daylight Time (ACDT)  – UTC +11 (SA)
• Lord Howe Daylight Time (LHDT) – UTC +11 (Lore Howe Island)

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