The size of Australia means that we have three times zones.
Eastern states - Queensland, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria and Tasmania - are on Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST) which is GMT plus 10 hours.
South Australia and the Northern Territory are on Australian Central Standard Time (ACST) which is GMT plus 9 ½ hours.
Western Australia is on Australian Western Standard Time (AWST) which is GMT plus 8 hours.
Australian Daylight Saving Dates
New South Wales (including the ACT), Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania move their clocks forward one hour for Daylight Saving (or Summertime) in October each year. The dates vary from state to state and are on the BCL what's on page for the relevant state and month.
Tasmania usually begins daylight saving at 2am on the first Sunday in October, whereas New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia usually begin at 2am on the last Sunday in October each year.
All states usually end daylight saving on at 3am on the last Sunday of March. However, in 2006, Daylight Saving was been extended to end one week later because of the Commonwealth Games.
Brisbane and Queensland maintain Eastern Standard Time all year round. This causes much debate every year in the south eastern corner of the state, and particularly on the Gold Coast which straddles the border. However, much of Queensland is in the tropics where residents have no desire to change their clocks in order to increase the amount of daylight and hot sunlight they live in.
Likewise Western Australia and the Northern Territory do not change their clocks.
Links direct to the relevant page of the official state government sites for past and projected daylight saving start and finish dates are below.