There are a few things about Australia that I thought I knew, but I had not fully grasped until I moved here. (Apologies to all Aussie readers)

Time zones
Australia is a huge country, so has three time zones.

AEST – Australian Eastern Standard Time.
Queensland, New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory, Victoria and Tasmania.

ACST – Australian Central Standard Time.
Northern Territory and South Australia.

AWST – Australian Standard Western Time.
Western Australia.

Before this standardization in the 1890’s, each local city or town was free to determine its own local time.

So far, so good.
But then it gets quirky. International time zones are usually at one hour intervals.
Here, Central time is only half an hour different to Eastern time.

So when it is 10am in QLD, NSW, ACT, VIC, and TAS …
It is 9.30am in NT and SA
And 8am in WA

Ok, I get that and was ok during the winter months.

But now it is summer time and Daylight Saving came into effect at the beginning of this month.

But not all states operate Daylight Savings.
There is AEDT – Australian Eastern Daylight Time.
And ACDT – Australian Central Daylight Time.
There are actually five time zones in use.

So now when it is 11am in NSW, ACT, VIC, and TAS …
It is 10am in QLD
It is 10.30am in SA
It is 9.30am in NT
And 8am in WA

And just to add to the confusion …
Broken Hill, a town in NSW uses SA time zone as historically it was linked by rail to Adelaide and not to Sydney.

Tweed Heads is in NSW but on the QLD border. It receives tv stations from both states, which must confuse the time zone you live in. In this town you can celebrate New Year twice within the hour by crossing the street.