Sydney
UTC+10Australia · AEST
Thu, 13 Aug 2026
Timezone Guide
Sydney, Australia runs on UTC+10. Clocks move forward each spring and back each autumn: UTC+10 in winter, UTC+11 in summer. Next change: 4 Oct. There is a 14-hour difference between Sydney and New York. Standard working hours don't overlap at all with New York, so meetings need an early or late slot on one side. There is a 9-hour difference between Sydney and London. Standard working hours don't overlap at all with London, so meetings need an early or late slot on one side. There is a 1-hour difference between Sydney and Tokyo. Standard 9-to-6 working hours overlap for about 8 hours a day with Tokyo. A good time to connect: 10:00–18:00 in Sydney lines up with 09:00–17:00 in Tokyo. This timezone is also shared with cities such as Melbourne. Keeping these offsets in mind makes it easier to schedule calls or travel to and from Sydney.
Practical Info
Sydney (Australia) is home to roughly 5.3M people. Today brings about 9.9 hours of daylight: sunrise at 07:00, sunset at 16:54. Clocks move forward each spring and back each autumn: UTC+10 in winter, UTC+11 in summer. Next change: 4 Oct. It sits in the Southern Hemisphere, about 34° south of the equator. Traffic drives on the left.
Flag
Australia
Capital
Canberra
Continent
Oceania
Time Zone
AEST · Australia/Sydney
Coordinates
33.90°S, 151.20°E
Currency
AUD ($)
Calling Code
+61
Driving Side
Left
Hemisphere
Southern
Language
English
Measurement System
Metric
Did You Know?
Australia Decided Daylight Saving by Referendum, and Got Different Answers
In most countries, whether to move the clocks is decided by a government. In Australia it has repeatedly been decided by the public — state by state, and they have not agreed.
Daylight saving first arrived in Australia by federal law during the two world wars, imposed nationally under the defence power: for three months in 1917, and for three summers from 1942. Both times it ended with the war.
The peacetime story starts in 1968, when Tasmania adopted it alone. In 1971 New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland and the ACT joined a trial running from 31 October 1971 to 27 February 1972.
Then the answers started diverging.
New South Wales liked it. In 1972 the state made it permanent, and when the question was put to voters at the 1976 state election, the referendum carried comfortably. Sydney has changed its clocks every year since.
Queensland did not. It dropped out in 1972, tried again for three summers from 1989, and then held a referendum on 22 February 1992 — which was defeated. The last full day of daylight saving in Queensland was 29 February 1992. It has not been back.
The reasons given in Queensland were specific rather than stubborn: much of the state is tropical, where seasonal daylight barely changes and there is nothing to save; the summers are already extremely hot; and farmers objected. Queensland's own Daylight Saving Task Force had noted that the south-east around Brisbane was "clearly in favour," and recommended splitting the state into two time zones east and west of 151° east. That was not adopted either.
Western Australia has voted on it four times — 1975, 1984, 1992 and 2009 — and rejected it every time.
The clock: the result is that daylight saving in Australia is not a national policy but a running disagreement, settled by ballot, differently, in different places.
Which is arguably the most honest way anyone in this series has handled the question. Everywhere else, a government moved the clock and told people afterwards. Australia asked.
Sources
- EPFL/graphsearch, *Daylight saving time in Australia* (savaş dönemi federal uygulamalar; 1968 Tazmanya; 1971 eyaletleri; Queensland'in 1972'de çıkması)
- NSW Parliament Education, *Referendum Use in NSW: Daylight Saving Case Study* (1971 deneme tarihleri; 1972 kalıcılaştırma)
- Wikipedia, *1976 New South Wales daylight saving referendum*
- Wikipedia, *1992 Queensland daylight saving referendum* (22 Şubat 1992; 29 Şubat 1992 son gün; Görev Gücü'nün 151°D önerisi)
- timenowworld.com (Queensland'in gerekçeleri; Batı Avustralya'nın dört referandumu)
Annual Daylight
Working Hours
2h overlap