By Patrick Avenell
SYDNEY: Five of the six states and territories that observe daylight savings time will revert to standard time at 2am this Sunday morning (5 April 2009). Daylight saving in the sixth state, Western Australia, ended last Sunday.
Retailers in New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory will get an extra hour of sleep this Saturday night, as clocks will be set back an hour at 3pm. Queensland and the Northern Territory do not observe daylight saving time.
From Monday, the three East Coast states, Tasmania and the ACT will all be the same time. This will be 30 minutes ahead of South Australia and the Northern Territory and 2 hours ahead of Western Australia.
For retailers, this means that proprietors, owners and managers in affected states need to be aware that changes in times can affect some products, especially computers. Additionally, display stock which features time readouts, such as DVD and Blu-ray players, and iPod docks, should be adjusted at close of business Saturday night.
Australian time zones, from 6 April 2009 to 4 October 2009:
Western Australia: GMT +8 hours
South Australia and Northern Territory: GMT +9.5 hours
New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania and ACT: GMT +10 hours