Current local time

Australia is one of the few countries spread across enough longitude to run three time zones at once, which is exactly why "what time is it in Australia" is a genuinely confusing question rather than a lazy one. This page shows the current time in Canberra, on Australian Eastern Standard Time, updating every second so you can trust it at a glance without doing your own maths.

The three zones are Eastern Standard Time (AEST, UTC+10), Central Standard Time (ACST, UTC+9:30) and Western Standard Time (AWST, UTC+8). New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania and the ACT sit on AEST. South Australia and the Northern Territory run on ACST, half an hour behind the east coast. Western Australia trails the eastern states by two full hours on AWST.

Daylight saving splits the country further

From the first Sunday in October to the first Sunday in April, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, the ACT and South Australia move their clocks forward an hour onto daylight saving time, becoming AEDT and ACDT respectively. Because Australia sits in the Southern Hemisphere, this overlaps with summer in December and January, not June, which trips up anyone used to a Northern Hemisphere calendar.

• Queensland stays on AEST all year and never adjusts its clocks
• Western Australia stays on AWST all year, with no daylight saving
• The Northern Territory stays on ACST all year
• New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, the ACT and South Australia switch twice a year

That split means the gap between, say, Brisbane and Sydney is nothing for most of the year but jumps to a full hour during daylight saving, since Queensland doesn't follow the shift. The clock above reflects Canberra's current offset automatically, adjusting itself the moment daylight saving starts or ends so you never have to remember the date.