Australia's Tiny Hidden Timezone - UTC+8:45

0:00 Intro
0:29 Geography
1:20 Telegraph Station
2:17 Why is it UTC+8:45?
2:27 ACWST Today
3:33 ACWST Missing From Maps
4:34 Sign-off

Australian Central Western Standard Time (ACWST) or 'Border Time' is UTC+8:45. So where is it, why does it exist, and why is it missing from lots of maps? Find out about Australia's tiny timezone.

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-Credits-
Australian timezones map: Chuq CCBYSA
Australian timezones map: Responsible? CCBYSA
ACWST sign photo: Greg Lehey CCBYSA4.0
Eucla telegraph Station: CCBY2.0 eileenmak Flickr
Eucla telegraph station: Robyn Jay CCBYSA2.0
Nullarbor cliffs photo: CCBY2.0 Chris Fithall Flickr
Nullarbor sign photo: CCBY2.0 Steve Flickr
Nullarbor landscape photo: CCBYSA2.0 Robyn Jay Flickr
World timezones map: NIST (editorial use only)

-Sources-

[Professorkek]

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.

[mehdizj]

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.

[alanclively]

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

[davidioanhedges]

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"

[brightfamilytravels]

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.

[BradGryphonn]

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.

[Rolmarsden]

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.

[standupmoto]

I’m an Aussie and didn’t realise this, still learning every day. Well done 👍

[jasperpeer]

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

[canadagood]

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?)

[RegularSchmuck]

Love how niche these topics are, such unique and top quality content!

[TriteHexagon]

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!

[Pushing_Pixels]

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.

[cmgibbs]

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.

[joebaker]

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.

[joelwebster]

Brilliant! ACWST is a whopping 15 minutes behind JST - Japan Standard Time - where I am.

[twentysevenlitres]

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"!

[hughboyd]

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.

[ellingly]

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

[nbnc]

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.