I am a software developer and I remember I had to calculate opening hours for our stores and this was one of those anomalies. Especially when calculating daylight savings.
Dude when developing ffs let us choose our own time zones. I dual boot linux so even on windows my computers hardware clock is set to UTC (this fixes weird issues in windows). This utterly breaks an amazing amount of web things.
I remember staying in Eucla as a kid and missing an episode of The Simpsons because the TV guide said a different time to the clock. Thats when I found out they had their own timezone.
My parents built mundrabilla Roadhouse in the late 60 s. We used 3 time zones to set our opening and closing times for our liquor licence. Squeezed in extra drinking times
The Eyre Highway across the Nullabor plain (Literally "No Trees") ... is famous for people taking pictures of their SatNav at the start ... "Turn left in 675 km"
When I lived in Adelaide, one of the highlights of my trips home to Perth was always seeing the sign just after Ceduna (800 km from Adelaide) that said "Perth 1917" km. Then 489 km later when I'd hit Eucla it felt like I was almost home :-P
Like my main comment, the road only crosses a fraction of the Nullarbor, it's mostly quite interesting in comparison to the train line that crosses the bulk of the Plain.... I'm being a pedant, but on the road, you mostly see trees, except for a small bit of road just inside SA, catch the train sometime and you'll see what "treeless plain" really means - for several HOURS
The WA Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (WA State Government staff) have a quarantine checkpoint at Border Village and they work on ACWST which is even more interesting seeing the Government don't officially recognise it.
When I worked in an airline, the timezone datafield was designed to store only multiple of half an hour. Kathmandu city timezone was GMT +5'45" and caused the software unable to store the time properly. We could never display Kathmandu time time right due to this quarter hr problem. We checked and found out that New Zealand Chatam Island uses quarter hr too, but we missed this one.
How cool is that? I passed through there as a 12-year-old when my parents drove from Perth to Brisbane to 'move home'. And now, 47 years later I have learned something new about the area! Thank you for your work.
Sir you should definitely do another tour around Australia. The Kimberleys, Exmouth’s national park, the pink lake… and arriving into the pleasant and calm Pearth after 6 months of travel… those have filled my memories for a full life. I’m French, but everyone I’ve met in homesteads said “I arrived here 25 years ago for 15 days of holidays.”
Same here, 33 years ago, going to visit rellies in Rocky 😁 I dimly remember changing my watch for the few hours it took to travel through, and the desolation of Cocklebiddy.
I remember one time we had some time to fill on a trip so my parents took us to that old telegraph station that's been half-swallowed by sand and we played around in it.
Wow, it would of been quicker for my family to move from Scotland to New Zealand than to drive from Perth to Brisbane. It must of been incredibly boring for much of that trip, especially with a view of a flat lifeless desert for most of it.
It's actually even more complex than this. Arubiddy Station (population ~5, but 1 million hectares) which runs from Cocklebiddy roadhouse up to Rawlinna, operates its very own time zone 1 hour of Perth and 1 or 2 hours off Melbourne and Sydney (depending on daylight savings). The reason the station owners do this is so they can listen to radio and TV from any of the major cities and coordinate better with major centres for video conferences etc. - but it also means they always turn up 15 minutes early at the roadhouse if they need to meet someone at the end of their 35 km driveway.
I have no idea how I arrived at your video, but it was actually very informative and fun! Really makes you wonder why small local timezones aren't more widespread... the issues you describe for these communities on the border most likely aren't unique to southern Australia. Anyway, keep up the good work! Greetings from the Netherlands
Western Australia is rather large, and South Australia's time is 30 minutes from NSW and Victoria's timezone. At this time of year, WA's time is three hours different. If you fly east from Perth, after an hour you're still in WA.
I don't know about Australia, but I have heard that in the United States it was common for towns to set their own times until the development of railways led to the time zones we use now.
Broken Hill is also in an unusual situation regarding time zones. Despite being in NSW and 45km over the border from SA, it utilises CST as used in SA and NT. This situation is based on Broken Hill's historical direct rail link to Adelaide rather than Sydney.
A few weeks ago I was talking with my friends about timezones and this timezone popped up in conversation. We were very confused about the matter, I'm glad I can now send them this video explaining things a bit better!
That time zone is only so odd because SA's time zone is so odd. SA should be UTC +9:00 by its geographical position. They chose UTC +9:30 (in 1899) to be closer in time to the eastern Colonies/States (1899 is prior to Federation in 1901), and also because Adelaide itself (you know, where all the business is conducted) is so close to the NSW and Vic borders. Time zones were a new idea in that period, driven mostly by the railways and their timetables. Prior the early-mid 19th century, nearly every town anywhere in the world used "local time", using midday as the time the sun was highest in the sky. Clocks weren't common, watches very rare. People simply rose with the Sun. Industrialisation changed everything, people now had to be at places "on-time"!
SA time even runs into western NSW. The city of Broken Hill uses central standard time instead of eastern standard time because Broken Hill has more connections to Adelaide than to Sydney and is a lot closer to Adelaide. The mining ore goes to South Australia.
Also this is why I'm a bit annoyed we have daylight savings here in SA. We're already 30 minutes ahead of where we should be normally, and the sun would set in summer after 8:30pm with no daylight savings needed. Being 30 minutes ahead of Queensland seems crazy in summer. If we had to keep it, why not change business hours 8-4 rather than change the clocks, you'd end up with the same result but with no confusion with timezones. Ah well...
@@jama211exactly! Im so glad we voted against daylight savings here in WA. Its such a stupid concept in Australia. If you want more daytime at the end of the day just get up an hour early and leave the rest of us alone
Another funny time zone quirk in Australia is Broken Hill in NSW using a different time zone to the rest of the state. It uses South Australia's Central Time instead of NSW's Eastern. Also, Tweed Heads, on the NSW / QLD border has a time zone border with one hour's difference running right through the town when NSW adopts daylight savings in summer and QLD doesn't.
84 was my first time. They had the fake newspaper stories about 'nymph' sightings on the walls. A ploy to draw tourists and an excuse to show pics of nearly naked blond girls. Went thru last year and they were still on the walls. Kind of an out-dated notion.
Phenix City, Alabama does this too. It is official in the Central Time Zone, but follows Eastern, as its economy is dominated by the US Army base located across the river in Georgia, where Eastern Time reigns.
The difference between official and unofficial time zones reminds me a little of the Jackpot NV. Most people that work in and visit Jackpot live in the neighboring time zone. So while Jackpot is legally in the Pacific time zone they observe Mountain time.
Daylight savings makes it further complicated, too. Technically SA goes to 2.5 instead of 1.5 hours ahead of WA during daylight savings time, so the disparity between Border Village and Eucla would be even weirder during summer without at least some concessions. ACWST normalises that a bit, though it is a bit weird to go back in time 1h45m when you drive the stretch from the Nullarbor Roadhouse to the Border Village
Interesting - reminds me of working in China which has one official Timezone for the whole country, so the locals in the far west of Xinjiang unofficially took 2 hours off “Beijing Time” which, by the sun, was some 4 hours ahead. Had to be careful making appointments. Is it still the same?
Here in Canada, our national CBC commonly says something like "Broadcast at 6 PM. 6:30 in Newfoundland". Similar statements on Australia Broadcasting must be much more confusing... (though perhaps they don't broadcast in Eucla?)
Lord Howe Island has its own Timezone as well. The time there is half an hour ahead of Sydney. During day light saving they put their clocks half an hour forward so that it is the same time as Sydney.
interesting quirks for sure. The time difference at the border would only be 1 hour and not 1 and a half if SA and the NT did the sensible thing and adopted UTC +9 instead of +9.30. Those 2 regions of Australia fit perfectly inside the UTC+9 zone, so why they are 30 minutes out of sync makes no sense. I think we should also get rid of "dayllight savings" nationwide but hey, that's just me.
You are right in a way how ever SA and NT in 1899 wanted to move 30 minutes closer to Melbourne. But that does not change the fact in Eastern WA 4:30am sun rises in late spring and early summer. I would like Eastern WA to be 1 hour ahead of Perth all year round and be 30 minutes behind NT and SA. I also wish all of Australia had daylight saving in the spring and summer months. Yes i agree with you daylight saving nation wide. Also 4 time zones instead of 3 with Western QLD being 30 minutes behind Brisbane is i had my way time zone suggestions for winter and Summer are: Winter: AWST [+8h, WA], ACWST [+9h, Eastern WA], ACST [+9.5h, NT, Western QLD, SA & Broken Hill], AEST [+10h, QLD, NSW, ACT, Vic & Tas] Summer: AWDT [+9h, WA], ACWDT [+10h, Eastern WA], ACDT [+10.5h, NT, Western QLD, SA & Broken Hill], AEDT [+11h, QLD, NSW, ACT, Vic & Tas]
If SA were UTC+9 and without Daylight Saving then it'd be sunset at 7pm in the middle of summer and sunrise at 4:30am. From a practical perspective that's far too early for typical lifestyles and the present arrangement with sunrise at 6am mid-summer and sunset at 8:30pm would suit most people far better.
@@AshleyReynolds-vc6ly I'm from Melbourne. I don't see any benefit in having daylight saving. We're all just getting up 1 earlier and pretending that the sun is staying in the sky for an extra hour.
@@jdillon8360 It's adjusting times to suit lifestyle. The same effect could be achieved by changing business hours from 9-5 to 8-4 during summer. Somewhere along the line it was decided that it was easier to change clocks than change routines by an hour. People don't want to get up at 6 AM but they are happy to get up at 6 AM if they think it is 7 AM!
Thanks, great video! Good to add that time zones were only introduced in Australia in 1895, well after the telegraph station was established. Until then every place had its own (very) local time.
Really interesting - had never heard of this rime zone issue in this part of the country before but I'm surprised that you didn't also raise the status of Broken Hill (NSW) during your video. Broken Hill and a large chunk of its surrounds through to the NSW/SA border officially takes the South Australian time zone but it's as rare as hen's teeth to see, between central and eastern time zones, the appropriate deviation that should wrap around Broken Hill on any zone zone map, Whether that time zone map is Australian or otherwise. Maybe you could pick up this time zone issue at the same time ? Keep up the interesting work mate. You outline points of interest, argument and difference with awesome clarity in your videos so keep it all up.
The only time I've ever seen this shown on a map is by Apple. Their timezone maps on their MacOS shows ACST stretch into New South Wales to cover Broken Hill.
Great bit of info! I'll make sure to add it to the list if my brother ever throws his "New Year's Everywhere" party, ringing in the new year in every time zone.
Unlike the rest of New South Wales, Broken Hill (and the surrounding region) observes Australian Central Standard Time (UTC+9:30), the same time zone used in nearby South Australia. This is because at the time the Australian dominions adopted standard time, Broken Hill's only direct rail link was with Adelaide, not Sydney. Similarly, Broken Hill is regarded as part of South Australia for the purposes of postal parcels rates and telephone charges. Broken Hill also used to be a break of gauge station where the state railway systems of South Australia and New South Wales met.
I’m in Perth and have friends in Adelaide who we’ve previously visited but we flew. I’ve always fancied the drive across the Nullarbor and this is one more reason. Quirky af! ☺️
Whilst there are several countries and portions of countries on +30 obscurities, There are only 3 +45 zones that I am aware of, Nepal, The Chatham Islands and this obscure one near Eucla in Western Australia.
Love these quirky videos that point out anomalies. I've always wondered why central time settled on the half hour. Would be much more convenient to have 3 zones all on the even hour.
Yup, got to experience this oddity a few months ago when I was driving a truck from Perth to Melbourne. Not that having the correct time means anything out that way.
I recall trying to interpret a Greyhound Australia timetable back in the 1990s from Perth to Adelaide and thought there was a typo or 5. Regards from Rockhampton 👍
TTK does it again. Unexpectedly firing off facts and details about something or another in his videos, which often I know little to nothing about. Sometimes you make me feel like a foreigner in my own country. Lol. Nice job and great video.
Camped in Kununurra in the mid 80's and was warned that the tour busses staying there operated on NT time rather than WST as it was more convenient and got them on the road earlier. Sort of made sense when you consider how far east this is but not much fun listening to buses idling at 4am by our clocks!
It makes sense now you have explained it, but it raised more questions about the time zones either side. I thought all the timezones around the world were rounded to 1 hour increments
On the other side of the world, Newfoundland And Labrador (easternmost Canada) are half an hour ahead of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. In turn, those three Provinces (on Atlantic Time) are an hour ahead of New York City, Washington DC, et. al. (which are on Eastern Time).
Of course there are three more timezones missing in all the maps: 1: UTC+6:30 for Cocos (Keeling), just like in Myanmar 2: UTC+7 for Christmas Island, just like in Jakarta 3: UTC+11 (DST: UTS+12) for Norfolk Island
I just learnt about another weird time zone in Australia. The city of Broken Hill in New South Wales uses the same time as South Australia. It is very close to the South Australian border and a long way from Sydney. In fact, it's a long way away from anything of interest.
Eucla.......has a sign at its location, proudly declaring "EUCLA, hub of the universe!". Eucla is on the WA side of the border, and a few hundred meters up the road on the SA side is "Border Village" truckstop. Broken Hill, despite being in NSW, is actually on Adelaide time. At Poeppels corner, you can stand in 3 different time zones
Personally I think Kununurra should adopt this time zone. I was there a couple of years ago and did a sunset dinner cruise. From memory we arrived back at the dock in complete darkness just after 6pm and returned to our caravan as the evening’s social event was over. Bizarre!!
I always thought they should have something similar for the Birdsville region. Sunrise is almost an hour later than Brisbane, even though they are technically the same timezone.
Wish I'd known about this back in 1980 riding my motorcycle across the Nullarbor. Reaching Caiguna, it was still light and well before sunset according to my watch (still on Perth time) so I decided to push on to the next roadhouse. About halfway the light started to fade noticeably and I ended up with a very, very nervous ride because dusk is not a time to be on that road on a bike. I was jumping at every shadow and seeing non-existent wombats behind every bush and rock.
A strange thing about time zones is that the United States 🇺🇸 covers 6 time zones, Mountain or MST based in Phoenix, Pacific or PST based in Los Angeles, Central or CST based in Chicago, Eastern or EST based in Washington D.C, Alaskan or AST based in Anchorage, & Hawaiian or HST based in Honolulu. But if you include territories even the uninhabited ones, the United States 🇺🇸 covers 11. The same amount as Russia 🇷🇺.
So please this popped up on my feed! I used to live and work at border village and the amount of times people can in so confused about our tiny time zone always made me laugh. Fun fact even the local border police run by it which makes it even weirder that it's not government recognised!
Note the reference to Mr A. C. Gregory of Qld at the Intercolonial conference of Surveyors in 1892, the "time drop" at Williamstown Victoria when it adopted Standard Time, and the hourly rules between zones. Still no mention of the Border Time Zone, but this article seems to stamp the beginning of official time zones in Aust.
Crossing the Nullabour (name of the region) often requires spending at least one night in those roadhouses. Booking motel rooms and trying figure out what timezone they operate at for time of arrival was quite the experience.
There's a small town in Northern Ontario called Atikoken, with on about 1500 people that basically has its own time zone. Officially it doesn't. It goes by Eastern Time for half of the year, and Central time for the other half. I think the way it works out, the change between timezones is at daylight savings time, and it does this to basically cancel daylight savings out. But there's not indication of this setup existing in any official timezones I'm aware of.
Very similar things happened along the early Great Western Railway in the UK, as the times of dawn and dusk at Greenwich were slightly behind the further west you went. Decent watches used by train crew to regulate their running soon threw up the discrepancy.
Why does this time zone not apply in Kununurra and Wyndham in the Kimberleys, where many more people have to live with a distorted time due to the Western Time Zone being based around Perth (eg. the sun sets at 5.15pm in July, and not too much later in Summer).
AWST is not based on Perth. Perth is about 430km west of actual +8 time. Caiguna is 480km east of it. Kununurra probably doesnt care much because its tropical. Early sunsets are nice when its hot.
This was super-interesting. Not likely to visit Australia any time soon (poor in UK), but when I hopefully eventually do this seems like a fun weird thing to experience :). Time is weeeeird. And totally relative to the individual 🙃
I have a question. How can the time in Perth be 5.21 am when the sun rises and it be 4.21 am in Eucla AS the sun rises, when the sun rises from the east, not the west? Surely it would be the other way around? If the sun rises at Eucla at 5.12 am and it's still 4.21 am in Perth, with no sun rising?
You've got it a bit mixed up. The sun rising example would be the case if there was NO separate time zone in Eucla. So at 4.21 am (Perth time) the sun rises in Eucla but it takes another hour for the Earth to spin east before Perth sees the sunrise at 5.21 (Perth time). With different time zones, the sun rises in Eucla at 5.21 (Eucla time) but it is still dark in Perth (4.21 Perth time). When the Earth rotates enough for sunrise to hit Perth it will be 5.21 (Perth time) but the sun will already have been up for an hour in Eucla where it is 6.21 (Eucla time).
As an Aussie this time zones existence surprised me, didn't know it existed until I drove into it. Very convenient as it means the petrol stations are open at the times you'd expect them to be
The issues you raised about why they need their own timezone are fairly common for any communities near timezone borders. These communities manage without having a special dedicated micro timezone, you just get up and go to bed a bit earlier.
I drove the Nulabor on 3 occasions in a 4 month period about 5 years ago. I didn't realise until the last trip across. Must look at the road signs more often.....
Until daylight savings time became a more nationwide practice in the U.S.A. Los Alamos was the only county in New Mexico that went on daylight time. It was convenient to have a 10 a.m. appointment in Santa Fe and to be able to leave Los Alamos at 10 a.m. to still make the appointment on time.
Actually, the time zone is actually official and is used by both the Norseman Court and Eucla Court (2 x JP's). But when WA dallied in Daylight saving and the new Act was passed, it slipped through the cracks.
This harks back to the days before railways, when “time” was local. The London to Bristol railway in England brought a realisation that time had to be standardised between the east and west sides of England… and everywhere else. Almost…
Somewhat to the west, across the ditch in Kiwiland, which is UTC+12 (in winter), we also have a little known additional timezone, and that is Chatham island time (CHADT) which is 45 mins ahead of NZ time.
I was born and raised in Australia and 40 years ago drove Perth to East Coast. I have never heard of this time zone. I am now 67 almost 68. One is never too old to learn. Thank you for this snipet of info
![Eminem - Temporary (feat. Skylar Grey) [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/ZaK9Wi5ho0o/mqdefault.jpg)
I am a software developer and I remember I had to calculate opening hours for our stores and this was one of those anomalies. Especially when calculating daylight savings.
@traybern whatever, as someone who live in the equator (I hate it), I find DST cringe
@traybernalright Albert Einstein
Dude when developing ffs let us choose our own time zones. I dual boot linux so even on windows my computers hardware clock is set to UTC (this fixes weird issues in windows). This utterly breaks an amazing amount of web things.
@@asdfssdfghgdfy5940 Accurate!
UTC conversion sucks
I remember staying in Eucla as a kid and missing an episode of The Simpsons because the TV guide said a different time to the clock. Thats when I found out they had their own timezone.
ay caramba!
@@everyhandletaken Don't have a cow, man!
Should have paid 900 dollarydoos to your local government so they could re-air it on the telly
human urine on the porch
Before satellite TV, Eucla etc would have had no broadcast TV.
My parents built mundrabilla Roadhouse in the late 60 s. We used 3 time zones to set our opening and closing times for our liquor licence. Squeezed in extra drinking times
I knew time zones make sense! 😁
This is one of the most Australian things I've ever heard of.
Interesting, my father built the new (back then) Madura Road House in the 70's....the time zone makes total sense when you work there
Your dad did a terrific job, it's a great roadhouse/motel. Feels very 70s still, which is a good thing. Definitely the place to stay along the Eyre.
So Australian! 😂
The Eyre Highway across the Nullabor plain (Literally "No Trees") ... is famous for people taking pictures of their SatNav at the start ... "Turn left in 675 km"
When I lived in Adelaide, one of the highlights of my trips home to Perth was always seeing the sign just after Ceduna (800 km from Adelaide) that said "Perth 1917" km. Then 489 km later when I'd hit Eucla it felt like I was almost home :-P
It is well described. Thousands of km with nothing bigger than a bush.
"Null" "Arbor" lmao, didn't make the connection initially
*Nullarbor.
Like my main comment, the road only crosses a fraction of the Nullarbor, it's mostly quite interesting in comparison to the train line that crosses the bulk of the Plain.... I'm being a pedant, but on the road, you mostly see trees, except for a small bit of road just inside SA, catch the train sometime and you'll see what "treeless plain" really means - for several HOURS
The WA Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (WA State Government staff) have a quarantine checkpoint at Border Village and they work on ACWST which is even more interesting seeing the Government don't officially recognise it.
I wouldn't put it past us Aussies to rock up to work at AWST 9:00 and finish the day at 5:00 ACWST
Rogues
@TyaxComp me neither..
I’m an Aussie and didn’t realise this, still learning every day. Well done 👍
Same here. I live in Albury NSW.
I’m 76 and I thought I was pretty knowledgeable about Australia but I never knew this!
well i learned something new about australia and i am 53 from vic
Even Cruise Ships going past this area use That time zone and tell passengers to change times on watches.
I'm west Australian and I didn't know this 😂
When I worked in an airline, the timezone datafield was designed to store only multiple of half an hour. Kathmandu city timezone was GMT +5'45" and caused the software unable to store the time properly. We could never display Kathmandu time time right due to this quarter hr problem. We checked and found out that New Zealand Chatam Island uses quarter hr too, but we missed this one.
How cool is that? I passed through there as a 12-year-old when my parents drove from Perth to Brisbane to 'move home'. And now, 47 years later I have learned something new about the area!
Thank you for your work.
Sir you should definitely do another tour around Australia. The Kimberleys, Exmouth’s national park, the pink lake… and arriving into the pleasant and calm Pearth after 6 months of travel… those have filled my memories for a full life.
I’m French, but everyone I’ve met in homesteads said “I arrived here 25 years ago for 15 days of holidays.”
Same here, 33 years ago, going to visit rellies in Rocky 😁 I dimly remember changing my watch for the few hours it took to travel through, and the desolation of Cocklebiddy.
I remember one time we had some time to fill on a trip so my parents took us to that old telegraph station that's been half-swallowed by sand and we played around in it.
Wow, it would of been quicker for my family to move from Scotland to New Zealand than to drive from Perth to Brisbane. It must of been incredibly boring for much of that trip, especially with a view of a flat lifeless desert for most of it.
@@rachelcookie321totally true. I think that's why my parents moved from Glasgow to Perth - no one finds you out here! 😂
It's actually even more complex than this. Arubiddy Station (population ~5, but 1 million hectares) which runs from Cocklebiddy roadhouse up to Rawlinna, operates its very own time zone 1 hour of Perth and 1 or 2 hours off Melbourne and Sydney (depending on daylight savings). The reason the station owners do this is so they can listen to radio and TV from any of the major cities and coordinate better with major centres for video conferences etc. - but it also means they always turn up 15 minutes early at the roadhouse if they need to meet someone at the end of their 35 km driveway.
They must have a lot of sheep.
That's just insane.
@@rachelcookie321round em up eith helicopters
But how official is it?
@@xpusostomos Neither that nor the time zone talked about in the video are official.
I have no idea how I arrived at your video, but it was actually very informative and fun! Really makes you wonder why small local timezones aren't more widespread... the issues you describe for these communities on the border most likely aren't unique to southern Australia. Anyway, keep up the good work! Greetings from the Netherlands
Western Australia is rather large, and South Australia's time is 30 minutes from NSW and Victoria's timezone. At this time of year, WA's time is three hours different.
If you fly east from Perth, after an hour you're still in WA.
I don't know about Australia, but I have heard that in the United States it was common for towns to set their own times until the development of railways led to the time zones we use now.
Broken Hill is also in an unusual situation regarding time zones. Despite being in NSW and 45km over the border from SA, it utilises CST as used in SA and NT. This situation is based on Broken Hill's historical direct rail link to Adelaide rather than Sydney.
Love how niche these topics are, such unique and top quality content!
A few weeks ago I was talking with my friends about timezones and this timezone popped up in conversation. We were very confused about the matter, I'm glad I can now send them this video explaining things a bit better!
cute pfp, your channel looks interesting. love some good chiptune :)
@@demonindenimOf all the places to get a new followers I didn’t expect this video. Hope you enjoy your stay!
That time zone is only so odd because SA's time zone is so odd. SA should be UTC +9:00 by its geographical position. They chose UTC +9:30 (in 1899) to be closer in time to the eastern Colonies/States (1899 is prior to Federation in 1901), and also because Adelaide itself (you know, where all the business is conducted) is so close to the NSW and Vic borders.
Time zones were a new idea in that period, driven mostly by the railways and their timetables. Prior the early-mid 19th century, nearly every town anywhere in the world used "local time", using midday as the time the sun was highest in the sky. Clocks weren't common, watches very rare. People simply rose with the Sun.
Industrialisation changed everything, people now had to be at places "on-time"!
SA time even runs into western NSW. The city of Broken Hill uses central standard time instead of eastern standard time because Broken Hill has more connections to Adelaide than to Sydney and is a lot closer to Adelaide. The mining ore goes to South Australia.
Also this is why I'm a bit annoyed we have daylight savings here in SA. We're already 30 minutes ahead of where we should be normally, and the sun would set in summer after 8:30pm with no daylight savings needed. Being 30 minutes ahead of Queensland seems crazy in summer. If we had to keep it, why not change business hours 8-4 rather than change the clocks, you'd end up with the same result but with no confusion with timezones. Ah well...
@@jama211exactly! Im so glad we voted against daylight savings here in WA. Its such a stupid concept in Australia. If you want more daytime at the end of the day just get up an hour early and leave the rest of us alone
Exactly, SA should be utc 9.
When you say SA "should" be +9, you mean the centre of the state? Where nobody lives?
Brilliant! ACWST is a whopping 15 minutes behind JST - Japan Standard Time - where I am.
Another funny time zone quirk in Australia is Broken Hill in NSW using a different time zone to the rest of the state. It uses South Australia's Central Time instead of NSW's Eastern. Also, Tweed Heads, on the NSW / QLD border has a time zone border with one hour's difference running right through the town when NSW adopts daylight savings in summer and QLD doesn't.
I stayed at Border Village back in 1986. I remember this weird quirk of SA/WA. Love it! Definitely worthy of a video, so thanks for doing it justice.
84 was my first time. They had the fake newspaper stories about 'nymph' sightings on the walls. A ploy to draw tourists and an excuse to show pics of nearly naked blond girls. Went thru last year and they were still on the walls. Kind of an out-dated notion.
Phenix City, Alabama does this too. It is official in the Central Time Zone, but follows Eastern, as its economy is dominated by the US Army base located across the river in Georgia, where Eastern Time reigns.
The difference between official and unofficial time zones reminds me a little of the Jackpot NV. Most people that work in and visit Jackpot live in the neighboring time zone. So while Jackpot is legally in the Pacific time zone they observe Mountain time.
Daylight savings makes it further complicated, too. Technically SA goes to 2.5 instead of 1.5 hours ahead of WA during daylight savings time, so the disparity between Border Village and Eucla would be even weirder during summer without at least some concessions. ACWST normalises that a bit, though it is a bit weird to go back in time 1h45m when you drive the stretch from the Nullarbor Roadhouse to the Border Village
Haha I loved out on there for a bit (Cocklebiddy and Madura). It was a pain trying to explain to travelers that we are 45 minutes ahead of Perth.
Interesting - reminds me of working in China which has one official Timezone for the whole country, so the locals in the far west of Xinjiang unofficially took 2 hours off “Beijing Time” which, by the sun, was some 4 hours ahead. Had to be careful making appointments. Is it still the same?
I visited Xinjiang in 2016 and the unofficial time zone is real. China would be best having 3 or 4 official time zones.
It’s ridiculous that a country as large as China has only one timezone.
Here in Canada, our national CBC commonly says something like "Broadcast at 6 PM. 6:30 in Newfoundland".
Similar statements on Australia Broadcasting must be much more confusing... (though perhaps they don't broadcast in Eucla?)
Lord Howe Island has its own Timezone as well. The time there is half an hour ahead of Sydney. During day light saving they put their clocks half an hour forward so that it is the same time as Sydney.
interesting quirks for sure. The time difference at the border would only be 1 hour and not 1 and a half if SA and the NT did the sensible thing and adopted UTC +9 instead of +9.30. Those 2 regions of Australia fit perfectly inside the UTC+9 zone, so why they are 30 minutes out of sync makes no sense. I think we should also get rid of "dayllight savings" nationwide but hey, that's just me.
You are right in a way how ever SA and NT in 1899 wanted to move 30 minutes closer to Melbourne. But that does not change the fact in Eastern WA 4:30am sun rises in late spring and early summer. I would like Eastern WA to be 1 hour ahead of Perth all year round and be 30 minutes behind NT and SA. I also wish all of Australia had daylight saving in the spring and summer months. Yes i agree with you daylight saving nation wide. Also 4 time zones instead of 3 with Western QLD being 30 minutes behind Brisbane is i had my way time zone suggestions for winter and Summer are: Winter: AWST [+8h, WA], ACWST [+9h, Eastern WA], ACST [+9.5h, NT, Western QLD, SA & Broken Hill], AEST [+10h, QLD, NSW, ACT, Vic & Tas]
Summer: AWDT [+9h, WA], ACWDT [+10h, Eastern WA], ACDT [+10.5h, NT, Western QLD, SA & Broken Hill], AEDT [+11h, QLD, NSW, ACT, Vic & Tas]
If SA were UTC+9 and without Daylight Saving then it'd be sunset at 7pm in the middle of summer and sunrise at 4:30am.
From a practical perspective that's far too early for typical lifestyles and the present arrangement with sunrise at 6am mid-summer and sunset at 8:30pm would suit most people far better.
Daylight saving is of more benefit in the south. In the north the length of the days are not as extreme so there is not much benefit.
@@AshleyReynolds-vc6ly I'm from Melbourne. I don't see any benefit in having daylight saving. We're all just getting up 1 earlier and pretending that the sun is staying in the sky for an extra hour.
@@jdillon8360 It's adjusting times to suit lifestyle. The same effect could be achieved by changing business hours from 9-5 to 8-4 during summer. Somewhere along the line it was decided that it was easier to change clocks than change routines by an hour. People don't want to get up at 6 AM but they are happy to get up at 6 AM if they think it is 7 AM!
Thanks, great video! Good to add that time zones were only introduced in Australia in 1895, well after the telegraph station was established. Until then every place had its own (very) local time.
Really interesting - had never heard of this rime zone issue in this part of the country before but I'm surprised that you didn't also raise the status of Broken Hill (NSW) during your video. Broken Hill and a large chunk of its surrounds through to the NSW/SA border officially takes the South Australian time zone but it's as rare as hen's teeth to see, between central and eastern time zones, the appropriate deviation that should wrap around Broken Hill on any zone zone map, Whether that time zone map is Australian or otherwise. Maybe you could pick up this time zone issue at the same time ? Keep up the interesting work mate. You outline points of interest, argument and difference with awesome clarity in your videos so keep it all up.
The only time I've ever seen this shown on a map is by Apple. Their timezone maps on their MacOS shows ACST stretch into New South Wales to cover Broken Hill.
Broken Hill also takes the phone area code from South Australia. That's if anyone still uses fixed landlines.
Broken Hill, in NSW, runs on South Australian time.
Great bit of info! I'll make sure to add it to the list if my brother ever throws his "New Year's Everywhere" party, ringing in the new year in every time zone.
The time zone between NSW and South Australia does not follow the border. Broken Hill keeps to South Australia time.
Unlike the rest of New South Wales, Broken Hill (and the surrounding region) observes Australian Central Standard Time (UTC+9:30), the same time zone used in nearby South Australia. This is because at the time the Australian dominions adopted standard time, Broken Hill's only direct rail link was with Adelaide, not Sydney. Similarly, Broken Hill is regarded as part of South Australia for the purposes of postal parcels rates and telephone charges. Broken Hill also used to be a break of gauge station where the state railway systems of South Australia and New South Wales met.
Such a reasonable explanation of daylight savings time!!! I legit LOVE this!!! Thank you!!!
I’m in Perth and have friends in Adelaide who we’ve previously visited but we flew. I’ve always fancied the drive across the Nullarbor and this is one more reason. Quirky af! ☺️
Whilst there are several countries and portions of countries on +30 obscurities, There are only 3 +45 zones that I am aware of, Nepal, The Chatham Islands and this obscure one near Eucla in Western Australia.
Love these quirky videos that point out anomalies. I've always wondered why central time settled on the half hour. Would be much more convenient to have 3 zones all on the even hour.
I worked at Nullarbor station , SA in 1979 and we had an unofficial time zone in summer of non daylight saving SA time.
Yup, got to experience this oddity a few months ago when I was driving a truck from Perth to Melbourne.
Not that having the correct time means anything out that way.
I recall trying to interpret a Greyhound Australia timetable back in the 1990s from Perth to Adelaide and thought there was a typo or 5. Regards from Rockhampton 👍
TTK does it again. Unexpectedly firing off facts and details about something or another in his videos, which often I know little to nothing about. Sometimes you make me feel like a foreigner in my own country. Lol. Nice job and great video.
Camped in Kununurra in the mid 80's and was warned that the tour busses staying there operated on NT time rather than WST as it was more convenient and got them on the road earlier. Sort of made sense when you consider how far east this is but not much fun listening to buses idling at 4am by our clocks!
It makes sense now you have explained it, but it raised more questions about the time zones either side. I thought all the timezones around the world were rounded to 1 hour increments
On the other side of the world, Newfoundland And Labrador (easternmost Canada) are half an hour ahead of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. In turn, those three Provinces (on Atlantic Time) are an hour ahead of New York City, Washington DC, et. al. (which are on Eastern Time).
I have relatives living in Perth,Australia.I learn something new everyday.
Of course there are three more timezones missing in all the maps:
1: UTC+6:30 for Cocos (Keeling), just like in Myanmar
2: UTC+7 for Christmas Island, just like in Jakarta
3: UTC+11 (DST: UTS+12) for Norfolk Island
There's also Lord Howe Island that uses UTC+10:30, BUT only jumps to 30 minutes for their DST (UTC+11).
I just learnt about another weird time zone in Australia. The city of Broken Hill in New South Wales uses the same time as South Australia. It is very close to the South Australian border and a long way from Sydney. In fact, it's a long way away from anything of interest.
Thanks for clearing that up for me. I drove into the Eucla Caravan Park on the 2nd of April 2007 on my west, and nobody had a clue what the time was!
Very interesting and well presented. Cheers mate.👍
Eucla.......has a sign at its location, proudly declaring "EUCLA, hub of the universe!". Eucla is on the WA side of the border, and a few hundred meters up the road on the SA side is "Border Village" truckstop. Broken Hill, despite being in NSW, is actually on Adelaide time. At Poeppels corner, you can stand in 3 different time zones
Personally I think Kununurra should adopt this time zone. I was there a couple of years ago and did a sunset dinner cruise. From memory we arrived back at the dock in complete darkness just after 6pm and returned to our caravan as the evening’s social event was over. Bizarre!!
Having lived in WA all my life, was a bit taken back (or forward :D) by the change as I wasn't expecting it, nice little nugget for the Nullabore.
Wow! Something I never knew.
I'd always marvelled at how many time zones we have during Daylight Savings, but had no idea this was in the mix too. What a surprise!
Great video - thanks!
This is so cool, thanks for making this video, I never would have known this without it
I always thought they should have something similar for the Birdsville region. Sunrise is almost an hour later than Brisbane, even though they are technically the same timezone.
Wish I'd known about this back in 1980 riding my motorcycle across the Nullarbor. Reaching Caiguna, it was still light and well before sunset according to my watch (still on Perth time) so I decided to push on to the next roadhouse. About halfway the light started to fade noticeably and I ended up with a very, very nervous ride because dusk is not a time to be on that road on a bike. I was jumping at every shadow and seeing non-existent wombats behind every bush and rock.
A strange thing about time zones is that the United States 🇺🇸 covers 6 time zones, Mountain or MST based in Phoenix, Pacific or PST based in Los Angeles, Central or CST based in Chicago, Eastern or EST based in Washington D.C, Alaskan or AST based in Anchorage, & Hawaiian or HST based in Honolulu. But if you include territories even the uninhabited ones, the United States 🇺🇸 covers 11. The same amount as Russia 🇷🇺.
Australia is 7 with territories, not counting nonsense ones like the video.
Take a shot every time he says Austraya! 🥃🤤
Joking aside, good video!
Sounds like the time zone for the train to Hogwarts.
So please this popped up on my feed! I used to live and work at border village and the amount of times people can in so confused about our tiny time zone always made me laugh. Fun fact even the local border police run by it which makes it even weirder that it's not government recognised!
Love these neat timezones
Note the reference to Mr A. C. Gregory of Qld at the Intercolonial conference of Surveyors in 1892, the "time drop" at Williamstown Victoria when it adopted Standard Time, and the hourly rules between zones.
Still no mention of the Border Time Zone, but this article seems to stamp the beginning of official time zones in Aust.
Crossing the Nullabour (name of the region) often requires spending at least one night in those roadhouses. Booking motel rooms and trying figure out what timezone they operate at for time of arrival was quite the experience.
Fascinating! I'm in Torquay VIC and had no idea!
Subbed and liked, cheers
There's a small town in Northern Ontario called Atikoken, with on about 1500 people that basically has its own time zone. Officially it doesn't. It goes by Eastern Time for half of the year, and Central time for the other half. I think the way it works out, the change between timezones is at daylight savings time, and it does this to basically cancel daylight savings out. But there's not indication of this setup existing in any official timezones I'm aware of.
I really like interesting time zones like this. I've had Kathmandu UTC+5:45 on my phone screen for years.
This is my favorite type of channel. Subbing for sure!
Very similar things happened along the early Great Western Railway in the UK, as the times of dawn and dusk at Greenwich were slightly behind the further west you went. Decent watches used by train crew to regulate their running soon threw up the discrepancy.
as someone who lived out there.. it helps so much.
I liked this. Thank you.
Australia just loves to have things a little different. This is something I never thought I would see, a 45 minute deviation
cool info.
ps. I never understood why SA is only 30 minutes behind the eastern states ?
@1:09 Lovely CHEM-TRAIL 🤣🤣🤣
And Broken Hill in far west NSW is on SA time…. also not shown on the maps at the end of the video.
Why does this time zone not apply in Kununurra and Wyndham in the Kimberleys, where many more people have to live with a distorted time due to the Western Time Zone being based around Perth (eg. the sun sets at 5.15pm in July, and not too much later in Summer).
AWST is not based on Perth. Perth is about 430km west of actual +8 time. Caiguna is 480km east of it.
Kununurra probably doesnt care much because its tropical. Early sunsets are nice when its hot.
Very cool & interesting video, have never known this existed.
So cool! Thanks for sharing!
This was super-interesting. Not likely to visit Australia any time soon (poor in UK), but when I hopefully eventually do this seems like a fun weird thing to experience :).
Time is weeeeird. And totally relative to the individual 🙃
It's an extremely short flash in a 2,850 km drive between Perth and Adelaide. most would only make a quick stop for fuel.
As someone who lives in Perth, i doubt I'd visit
That's interesting
I noticed the signs as I came across the Nullarbor, west to east, but was puzzled by my iPhone not updating my clock times
Been to the WA/SA border roadhouse village once when driving from Melbourne to Perth. It was so confusing!😂
Another one of those endless frustrating time zone quirks Tom Scott was talking about on Computerphile
Oh shit! I just drove this few months back and was wondering what that sign was about!
Very cool! It’s the little things
I have a question.
How can the time in Perth be 5.21 am when the sun rises and it be 4.21 am in Eucla AS the sun rises, when the sun rises from the east, not the west?
Surely it would be the other way around?
If the sun rises at Eucla at 5.12 am and it's still 4.21 am in Perth, with no sun rising?
You've got it a bit mixed up. The sun rising example would be the case if there was NO separate time zone in Eucla. So at 4.21 am (Perth time) the sun rises in Eucla but it takes another hour for the Earth to spin east before Perth sees the sunrise at 5.21 (Perth time). With different time zones, the sun rises in Eucla at 5.21 (Eucla time) but it is still dark in Perth (4.21 Perth time). When the Earth rotates enough for sunrise to hit Perth it will be 5.21 (Perth time) but the sun will already have been up for an hour in Eucla where it is 6.21 (Eucla time).
@AshleyReynolds-vc6ly but that's my whole point watch the video
wow, that was actually really interesting!
As an Aussie this time zones existence surprised me, didn't know it existed until I drove into it. Very convenient as it means the petrol stations are open at the times you'd expect them to be
The issues you raised about why they need their own timezone are fairly common for any communities near timezone borders. These communities manage without having a special dedicated micro timezone, you just get up and go to bed a bit earlier.
I drove the Nulabor on 3 occasions in a 4 month period about 5 years ago. I didn't realise until the last trip across. Must look at the road signs more often.....
Until daylight savings time became a more nationwide practice in the U.S.A. Los Alamos was the only county in New Mexico that went on daylight time. It was convenient to have a 10 a.m. appointment in Santa Fe and to be able to leave Los Alamos at 10 a.m. to still make the appointment on time.
This is why nobody takes us seriously with town names like "Cocklebiddy"
Hey i've been there! Went on a caving trip to the Nullarbor back in 2018, absolutely spectacular experience and landscape :)
There is also another unofficial timezone just east of broken Hill to over near embalm roadhouse between cobar and Wilcannia, it too is sign posted
Actually, the time zone is actually official and is used by both the Norseman Court and Eucla Court (2 x JP's). But when WA dallied in Daylight saving and the new Act was passed, it slipped through the cracks.
Very interesting video. Thanks
This harks back to the days before railways, when “time” was local. The London to Bristol railway in England brought a realisation that time had to be standardised between the east and west sides of England… and everywhere else. Almost…
Bloody fascinating
Thank you for posting
Somewhat to the west, across the ditch in Kiwiland, which is UTC+12 (in winter), we also have a little known additional timezone, and that is Chatham island time (CHADT) which is 45 mins ahead of NZ time.
Should that be "Somewhat to the EAST"? 🤔 Or have the earthquakes in the Shaky Isles REALLY moved the land?! 😉😊
@@theoztreecrasher2647 Ha, yes, my bad! East it is!! 🤔😁
I was born and raised in Australia and 40 years ago drove Perth to East Coast. I have never heard of this time zone. I am now 67 almost 68. One is never too old to learn. Thank you for this snipet of info
I feel like im going back in time when entering western Australia
Cheers to the folks at Border Village who let us hang around a few days so WA wouldn't quarantine us.