This community is a place created for the people of Melbourne and Victoria. We are a positive, welcoming and inclusive community. We might not agree about everything, but we always strive to stay civil and respectful.
The focus of our discussions is based around things that affect Victoria, but we are also free to discuss our local perspective on wider issues. Or head to the regular Daily Random Discussion thread to talk about anything.
Ongoing discussions, FAQs & Resources (still under construction)
Adoption Certificate for Nellie, the Daily Thread numbat (with thanks to @Catfish)
Or, for those boring old manual clocks, you will have to put them forward an hour yourself. Alternatively, feel free to save time now and manually add an hour in your head every time you check the time, then after a few weeks get around to actually changing them, then spend a few weeks confused about whether you changed them or not and if you still need to add an hour and checking the time on your phone to make sure.
Bloody daylight savings. It upsets the chooks and fades the curtains.
Sad to see North America isn’t the only continent stuck with this archaic ritual.
Yup. The worst thing is, while Europe has voted their intention to end it, and some American states are talking about possibly doing the same, in Australia our fight is trying not to get it introduced in those states who don't already have it. There seems to be very little talk about getting rid of it from the states that do it.
Which is so unfortunate, because it's more than just a quirky "archaic ritual". It has real measurable consequences—people die from daylight saving time. And it lacks any real benefits—prople like to talk about economic benefits, but studies fail to find them.
Can you throw some evidence/examples about people who have died from daylight saving time ?
It's not something where you can attribute a particular case to DST. It's more like climate change, where we know from overwhelming evidence that it results in an increase in problems overall, but not which specific instances wouldn't have occurred otherwise.
Specifically, it leads to notable spikes in traffic crashes, heart problems, and suicides, among other problems. It's been quite extensively studied from a variety of angles, and all of them come down on the side of DST being problematic. Here's a handful of them:
I'm particularly a fan of the penultimate one linked there, which states:
In summary, the scientific literature strongly argues against the switching between DST and Standard Time and even more so against adopting DST permanently.
Doesn't get much clearer than that. I have to admit to being surprised at it though, because until I learnt that I actually had advocated for the possibility of permanent DST in some areas.
The US increase is inapplicable to Australia. There is no evidence of that DST affects traffic collisions here.
And it lacks any real benefits
Maybe with your lifestyle. An extra hour of sunlight at the beach throughout summer is a very real benefit for me. I love DST and look forward to it every year.
It's not about my lifestyle or yours. It's about the empirical evidence which points to significant health detriments caused by DST, and which fail to find evidence supporting the DST advocates' claims that it's good for the economy.
None of that has anything to do with my reply, though. I am only contesting your claim that DST has no real benefits.
Correct. That is the case.
When ever I would go camping at the beach in summer, I would get up earlier in the morning and go for a walk. It was still fresh, not too hot and the beach wasn’t crowded by day-trippers.
This is the correct way to get an extra hour of sunlight at the beach in summer.
I assume that you go to the beach in summer to get away from the Rat Race of 9-5, peak hour traffic and other artificial time constraints.
Do not become beholden to a clock to tell you that it is time to get up. If it is time to get up, get up!
Yep. Just as I was getting over seasonal depression from getting up before the sun, we change the clocks and I get plunged back in.
But at least we get to stay up later, which means that it is even more tiring to get up in the morning!
The United States Chamber of Commerce has praised the extension of daylight saving under the 2005 law, which increased the amount of shopping and commerce after work in the evenings.
Follow the yanks and literally change your clocks to make line go up more.
Forward?
Commenting from Canada and our saying is “spring forward, fall back” when it comes to remembering that, but you guys have opposite seasons. Is it the same????
It is spring in Australia
you guys have opposite seasons
Which is why we have opposite daylight time 🙂
No matter where in the world you are, your daylight time change is 'spring forward' because in spring the days grow longer, regardless of which calendar months your spring occurs in.
So when we go back you go forward? That seems so odd
As a co-worker told me, “when it’s winter in the Southern Hemisphere, it’s night in the Northern Hemisphere”. He was too stupid to be joking.
So when we go back you go forward?
Well, not actually on the same dates. In Australia, the current period of DST runs from 1 Oct 2023 to 7 Apr 2024 (see here for details: https://www.timeanddate.com/time/change/australia?year=2023). I see Canada is switching back to standard time on 5 Nov 2023 then switching back to DST on 10 Mar 2024 (https://www.timeanddate.com/time/change/canada?year=2023).
But essentially, yeah, anywhere that uses DST will switch to DST (i.e. moves clocks forward) at a time of year when the sunrise is getting earlier (typically some time in spring), and switches to standard time (i.e. moves clocks back) at a time of year when sunrise is getting later (typically some time in autumn/fall).
The seasons are opposite in Canada and Australia, so the times of the calendar year when we change to and from DST are roughly opposite (Canada uses DST uses for about 8 months of the year, whereas in Australia it's only about 6 months, but the point is we both 'spring forward').
Huh, so if I had a friend in Australia that I talked to every day I would have to adjust for two extra hours every time daylight savings happens?
Well, because the daylight time switches are on different dates, you would have to adjust 1 hour, then another hour a month later, then 6 months later adjust an hour, then a month after than another hour 😆
Here's a table to describe that:
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ottowa TZ | -5 | -5 | -4 | -4 | -4 | -4 | -4 | -4 | -4 | -4 | -5 | -5 |
| Canberra TZ | +11 | +11 | +11 | +10 | +10 | +10 | +10 | +10 | +10 | +11 | +11 | +11 |
| Time difference | 16 | 16 | 15 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 16 |
| Time difference, date-independent | 8 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 8 |
Holy smokes that’s super confusing. I get it, but I guess I’ve just not really ever thought about it.
Now I’m glad I do t have any Australian friends. :P
The days are the same length, it only changes how early and late the sun rises and sets.
No, that's not how we do it in Australia. We run 23 hour days over the summer months, and after 6 months of that we've saved up a full week which we use to have a wild country-wide party.
I really hate daylight savings and how rough it is with losing an hour.
Why on earth also would they do it on the last weekend of school holidays is beyond me too.
They should just get rid of it, no shifting at all.
What, and miss out on all the light after work for fun activities?
I mean, either way it's spent at my house.
My microwave clock is correct half of the year at least
I never let my microwave know it can work as a clock, saves a lot of hassle.
The only clock I have that needs changing manually these days is the clock in the car.
Me not from here. Was like noooooooooo……. I get to wait one more month.
Yesterday the UK were 9 hours behind Melbourne. Today they are 10 hours behind. In a month when they drop out of daylight saving, they will be 11 hours behind Melbourne. I need to talk with UK people for work. Not looking pretty.
Change the clocks, check your smoke alarm batteries ... and replace if needed. The batteries that is.
