In Australia, daylight saving in 2026 runs in the opposite direction from the northern hemisphere: the clocks go forward on the first Sunday of October and back on the first Sunday of April, because Australia's summer is the northern winter. In 2026 that is Sunday, 4 October 2026 to Sunday, 5 April 2026. Only the south-eastern states observe it — New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT. Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory do not.
Try the tool: Time Zone Converter — convert any time between any two Australian cities, with the 2026 daylight saving rules applied.
Every Australian time zone in 2026
| Time zone | Daylight saving starts 2026 | Daylight saving ends 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Sydney (Australia/Sydney) | Sunday, 4 October 2026 | Sunday, 5 April 2026 |
| Melbourne (Australia/Melbourne) | Sunday, 4 October 2026 | Sunday, 5 April 2026 |
| Brisbane (Australia/Brisbane) | No change — no daylight saving | No change — no daylight saving |
| Perth (Australia/Perth) | No change — no daylight saving | No change — no daylight saving |
| Adelaide (Australia/Adelaide) | Sunday, 4 October 2026 | Sunday, 5 April 2026 |
Sydney (Australia/Sydney) moves its clocks forward on Sunday, 4 October 2026 and back on Sunday, 5 April 2026. In summer it is UTC+11:00 from UTC; in winter it is UTC+10:00. Melbourne (Australia/Melbourne) moves its clocks forward on Sunday, 4 October 2026 and back on Sunday, 5 April 2026. In summer it is UTC+11:00 from UTC; in winter it is UTC+10:00. Brisbane (Australia/Brisbane) does not observe daylight saving and stays on UTC+10:00 all year. Queensland does not observe daylight saving, while New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia do. Queenslanders have voted against it three times, most recently in a 1992 referendum — farmers and people in the tropical north argue the extra evening sun would mean more heat, not more usable daylight. Perth (Australia/Perth) does not observe daylight saving and stays on UTC+08:00 all year. Western Australia does not observe daylight saving. Voters have rejected it in four referendums, most recently in 2009, and the state stays on UTC+8 all year. Adelaide (Australia/Adelaide) moves its clocks forward on Sunday, 4 October 2026 and back on Sunday, 5 April 2026. In summer it is UTC+10:30 from UTC; in winter it is UTC+09:30.
Why Queensland and Western Australia do not change
Queenslanders have voted against daylight saving three times, most recently in a 1992 referendum — farmers and people in the tropical north argue the extra evening sun would mean more heat, not more usable daylight. Western Australia has rejected it in four referendums, most recently in 2009. The result is that Australia has two times for half the year: in summer, Sydney is an hour ahead of Brisbane, even though the two cities are in neighbouring states. It is the same pattern as the United States, where Arizona does not change while the rest of the country does.
New Zealand — the neighbour that also changes
New Zealand observes daylight saving on a slightly different pattern from Australia: it moves its clocks forward on the last Sunday of September — a week before Australia — and back on the first Sunday of April, the same day as Australia. In 2026 that is Sunday, 27 September 2026 to Sunday, 5 April 2026. Auckland is UTC+13:00 from UTC in January (daylight saving) and UTC+12:00 in July (standard time). The one-week difference in spring means that for a week each year, the gap between Sydney and Auckland is two hours instead of three — a detail that catches people scheduling across the Tasman.
Australia against the northern hemisphere
Because the seasons are reversed, the offset between Sydney and London changes four times a year: London moves its clocks in March and October, Sydney moves its in April and October, and each change moves the gap by an hour. In January, when Sydney is on daylight saving (UTC+11:00) and London is on standard time (UTC+0), the gap is 11 hours. In July, when Sydney is on standard time (UTC+10:00) and London is on summer time (UTC+01:00), the gap is 9 hours. The time zone converter applies the rules for the date you choose, so the gap is always right — and the meeting planner shows the overlap for any set of cities.
Daylight saving in 2027
In 2027, daylight saving in Australia starts on Sunday, 3 October 2027 and ends on Sunday, 4 April 2027 — the first Sunday of October and the first Sunday of April, as always. Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory still do not observe it, and New Zealand changes on the same pattern: forward on the last Sunday of September and back on the first Sunday of April.
What the change means in practice
The clock change is not just an hour on the clock. In spring, everyone loses an hour of sleep, and studies consistently find a spike in road accidents, heart attacks and workplace injuries in the days after the change. In autumn, the hour is regained, and there is no comparable spike. For travellers, the change means checking flight times: a flight that leaves at 2am on the night of the change may not exist, or may exist twice. For anyone scheduling across time zones, it means checking the offset for the date, not the offset you remember — the time zone converter applies the rules for the date you choose.
Frequently asked questions
When does daylight saving start in 2026?
On the first Sunday of October — Sunday, 4 October 2026 in 2026.
When does daylight saving end in 2026?
On the first Sunday of April — Sunday, 5 April 2026 in 2026.
How many time zones observe daylight saving in 2026?
51 of the 100 zones covered on this site — 45 in the northern hemisphere and 6 in the southern hemisphere.
Does every country observe daylight saving?
No. Most of Africa and Asia do not, and several countries have abolished it — Russia in 2014, Türkiye in 2016, Brazil in 2019, Mexico in 2022, Jordan in 2022, and Morocco in 2026.
How do I check the daylight saving dates for a city?
Use the time zone converter: enter the city and the date, and it shows the offset in effect on that date. The city's own page — for example the daylight saving page for New York — gives the dates too.
Related pages
Sources
- IANA Time Zone Database, via Node.js Intl (
Intl.DateTimeFormatwithtimeZone) — offsets, daylight saving dates and local times in this article were worked out from the IANA database, not typed from memory. - TimeFlow's own time-zone data (
data/cities.ts,data/dst.ts), computed from the IANA database. - Daylight saving dates: the IANA Time Zone Database, as applied by this site's tools. Dates on this page are computed from the database for 2026.
- TimeFlow's time zone converter — the live tool behind the dates on this page.
- Time-zone and daylight saving rules are set by governments and can change. For flights, deadlines and meetings that cannot move, confirm the time with an official source.