Parts of

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

and

Fiji Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...

are areas of

Oceania Oceania ( , ) is a region, geographical region including Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Outside of the English-speaking world, Oceania is generally considered a continent, while Mainland Australia is regarded as its co ...

that currently observe

daylight saving time Daylight saving time (DST), also referred to as daylight savings time, daylight time (Daylight saving time in the United States, United States and Daylight saving time in Canada, Canada), or summer time (British Summer Time, United Kingdom, ...

(DST).

By country and region

Australia

;Present situation Currently,

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

, Victoria,

Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...

Australian Capital Territory The Australian Capital Territory (ACT), known as the Federal Capital Territory until 1938, is an internal States and territories of Australia, territory of Australia. Canberra, the capital city of Australia, is situated within the territory, an ...

, Jervis Bay Territory and

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

apply DST each year, from the first Sunday in October to the first Sunday in April. The

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

and the external territories do not observe DST. ;History Daylight saving was first used in Australia during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, and was applied in all states. It was used again during the Second World War. A drought in Tasmania in 1967 led to the reintroduction during the summer, and this was repeated every summer since. In 1971, New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, and the Australian Capital Territory followed Tasmania in observing daylight saving, Western Australia and the Northern Territory did not. Queensland abandoned daylight saving time in 1972. Originally

alone commenced daylight saving on the first Sunday in October, while the other states began on the last Sunday in October and finished on the last Sunday in March, until 2008 excepting in 2000 when all the states observing DST moved forward the commencement date to Sunday, 27 August 2000 because of the Sydney Olympic Games which commenced in mid-September. From 2008/09 daylight saving has been extended another four weeks in NSW, Victoria, SA and the ACT, in addition to Tasmania, from the first Sunday in October to the first Sunday in April.

again trialled daylight saving, for three years between 1989 and 1992, with a referendum on daylight saving held on 22 February 1992, which was defeated with a 54.5% ‘no’ vote - with regional and rural areas strongly opposed, while those in the metropolitan South East Queensland were in favour. In December 2008, the Daylight Saving for South East Queensland (DS4SEQ)

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

was officially registered, advocating the implementation of a dual-

time zone A time zone is an area which observes a uniform standard time for legal, Commerce, commercial and social purposes. Time zones tend to follow the boundaries between Country, countries and their Administrative division, subdivisions instead of ...

arrangement for Daylight Saving in South East Queensland while the rest of the state maintains

standard time Standard time is the synchronization of clocks within a geographical region to a single time standard, rather than a local mean time standard. Generally, standard time agrees with the local mean time at some meridian that passes through the r ...

. The party contested the March 2009 Queensland State election with 32 candidates and received around one percent of the state-wide primary vote, equating to around 2.5% across the 32 electorates contested. On 14 April 2010, and after being approached by the Daylight Saving for South East Queensland (DS4SEQ)

Independent member Peter Wellington, introduced the Daylight Saving for South East Queensland Referendum Bill 2010 into Queensland Parliament, calling for a

referendum A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate (rather than their Representative democracy, representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either bin ...

to be held at the next State election on the introduction of daylight saving into South East Queensland under a dual-

arrangement. The Bill was defeated in Queensland Parliament on 15 June 2011. In

, four

s in 1975, 1984, 1992 and 2009 have rejected DST. In 2006, the

Parliament of Western Australia The Parliament of Western Australia is the bicameralism, bicameral legislature of the Australian states and territories of Australia, state of Western Australia, which constitutes the legislative branch of the state's political system. The parl ...

approved a three-year daylight saving trial to be followed by a referendum to decide whether DST should be put in place permanently. However, public opposition mounted during the first year of the trial, and the WA Nationals announced a public campaign to bring the referendum forward to 2007. The trial continued until the referendum, held on 16 May 2009. The result was another rejection of DST, by a larger margin compared to the three previous referendums. Although as previously the suburbs of the state capital,

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

, supported the proposal, it was by a much narrower margin than before with significant swings against it in several areas, most notably in the East Metropolitan region. As a result, the Premier of Western Australia has said that the DST issue should not be considered for at least another 20 years. The Northern Territory experimented with daylight saving in the early part of the 20th century. It was last used in 1944.

Fiji

Despite its proximity to the equator and therefore a relatively small variation of daylight length,

implemented daylight saving time in 1998-99 but it ended after that.

restarted DST in 2009 starting on November 29 and ending on April 26, 2010. The decision was based on a report by the Attorney-General, Mr Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum. "Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said that from the information available, the implementation of daylight saving in 1998 and 1999 received very encouraging response from the people and the business community. Apart from availability of more daylight time for sport, leisure and shopping, the working people are able to spend quality daylight time in the afternoons and evenings with their family and loved ones, including engaging in healthy activities such as gardening or going for a walk. In 1999, the Ministry of Labour reported that there was an overall increase in economic activity and productive work as a result of daylight saving." For the 2010-2011 summer, DST started on fourth Sunday in October and ended on last Sunday in March. Fiji changed the ending of DST to the last Sunday in January in 2011. In 2021 the Fiji government announced that Fiji would not observe daylight saving time in 2021–22.

Hawaii

Although

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

is further away from equator than

, and therefore there is a slightly greater variation in the daylight length, Hawaii does not observe DST. Most of the inhabited islands are located close to the west end of the Hawaii–Aleutian Time Zone, and Oahu, Kauai and Niihau are located more than 7 degrees west of the Hawaii–Aleutian Time Zone's meridian and should, theoretically, be located in the next

to the west. Therefore advancing the clock in Hawaii would make sunrise times close to 7:00 a.m. even in June. Hawaii did experiment with DST for three weeks between April 30, 1933 and May 21, 1933; there are no known official records as to why it was implemented or discontinued. Hawaii has never observed daylight saving time under the Uniform Time Act, having opted out of the Act's provisions in 1967.

New Zealand

From 30 April 2007, DST begins at 02:00 NZST on the last Sunday in September each year, and ends at 03:00 NZDT (or 02:00 NZST as defined in the Time Act 1974) on the first Sunday in April. New Zealand time, including DST, is used by several

Antarctic The Antarctic (, ; commonly ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the South Pole, lying within the Antarctic Circle. It is antipodes, diametrically opposite of the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antar ...

bases that are supplied from New Zealand. This results in the oddity that the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station sets its clocks an hour further ahead during the southern summer, when the sun is constantly above the horizon, than in the southern winter, when the sun is constantly below the horizon. The extreme geographic position of the base means that no possible adjustment of the daily activity cycle can have any effect on the amount of sunlight received during those activities. However, the arrangement presumably makes real time communications with New Zealand more practical, particularly in dealing with offices. The New Zealand dependencies of

Tokelau Tokelau (; ; known previously as the Union Islands, and, until 1976, known officially as the Tokelau Islands) is a dependent territory of New Zealand in the southern Pacific Ocean. It consists of three tropical coral atolls: Atafu, Nukunonu, an ...

, Cook Islands and Niue do not maintain DST. The latter two are on the other side of the International Date Line and differ between 22 and 24 hours from New Zealand proper.

Samoa

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa and known until 1997 as Western Samoa, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania, in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu), two smaller, inhabited ...

observed DST from 2010 to 2021, starting on the last Sunday in September and ending on first Sunday in April.

U.S. territories

All U.S. insular territories with civilian government in Oceania,

American Samoa American Samoa is an Territories of the United States, unincorporated and unorganized territory of the United States located in the Polynesia region of the Pacific Ocean, South Pacific Ocean. Centered on , it is southeast of the island count ...

, Guam, and the

Northern Mariana Islands The Northern Mariana Islands, officially the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), is an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territory and Commonwealth (U.S. insular area), commonwealth of the United States consistin ...

lie in the tropics and do not observe DST.

References

{{reflist Daylight saving time Time in Oceania