time in southeastern Western Australia

[LIVINGSTON Alex]

Apologies if this has already been covered. I checked the latest tzdata 
file and there seems to be no mention of it.

I have been meaning to write this for nearly four years; it was just on 
four years ago that I drove along the Eyre Highway, which passes 
through eastern Western Australia close to the southern coast of the 
continent.

I paid particular attention to the time kept there. There can be no 
dispute that UTC+08:45 was considered "the time" from the border 
village just inside the border with South Australia to as far west as 
just east of Caiguna. There can also be no dispute that Eucla is the 
largest population centre in this zone, having a population of "40 or 
50" (from memory what the proprietor of the roadhouse said when I asked 
him); it even has named side streets off the highway, and a very modern 
meteorological observatory and office. The other settlements, 
Cocklebiddy, Madura, Mundrabilla, and the border village, have much 
smaller permanent populations (around a dozen at most). So if a new 
zone were to be added to the tz database it should be called 
"Australia/Eucla".

To back up my assertions I was going to refer to photographs I took of 
the three clocks at the border crossing (showing, Perth, local, and 
Adelaide time, respectively) and of the clearly "official" sign 
(galvanised-steel posts and frame, well-cut rectangular sheet-metal 
plate with rounded corners, stencilled lettering, and reflective paint) 
proclaiming "Central Western Time" that is seen just after leaving 
Caiguna heading east, but I have not published them yet and I do not 
have the time to check them now. (I think the sign also says, in 
smaller lettering, "Advance Clocks 45 Minutes".) This zone is also 
shown on the excellent map at 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Timezones_optimized.png (obviously 
based on the CIA time-zone map). "Central Western Time" is mentioned in 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_zone, where an estimated population 
for this region of 200 (according with what I would have guessed) is 
also given. (Unfortunately the phrase "Western Central Standard Time" 
is used in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_in_Australia to refer to 
the same thing.)

Now that Western Australia is observing daylight saving, the question 
arose whether this part of the state would follow suit. I just called 
the border village [+61 (0)8 9039-3474; from online white pages] and 
confirmed that indeed they have, meaning that they are now observing 
UTC+09:45.

There is one more curiosity to report about this isolated part of the 
world. The old Eyre telegraph station, just behind the coastal sand 
dunes southeast of Cocklebiddy, is now run as a bird observatory as 
well as a weather station and guest house. Its permanent population is 
2 (a caretaker couple). I stayed there for a night on my way through 
and noticed that they kept a time different both from Perth and "the 
highway" (phrase used by caretaker; see below); they have a clock in 
their kitchen with a Dymo label on it stating "Eyre Std. Time" (I took 
a picture). It was UT+09:00, meaning a whole hour ahead of Perth, 
making their checking and reporting of weather data (which the Perth 
weather bureau expects to be done according to Perth time) simpler. I 
have just called them [+61 (0)8 9039-3450, also from online white 
pages], and they too have advanced their clocks with the rest of the 
state, putting them on UTC+10:00 and maintaining their one-hour 
difference from Perth.

As far as I'm concerned this warrants another time zone, 
Australia/Eyre, despite the tiny permanent population! I seem to 
remember that what matters to this list is what time people actually 
keep, not statutory status.

I hope the hour or two I've spent preparing and writing this turns out 
to be of some value.