FW: Australian time zone names

Robert Elz kre at munnari.OZ.AU
Fri Nov 2 05:01:08 UTC 2007


  | From: Mark Jerkovic [mailto:mjerkovic at aconex.com] 
  | Sent: Thursday, November 01, 2007 7:24 PM
  | To: tz at lecserver.nci.nih.gov
  | Subject: Australian time zone names
  | 
  | The Australian Government defines time zone names as follows:

You should find and read the archives of the TZ mailing list - this
has been discussed to death.

But briefly, the Aust Govt only defines anything related to time for
the ACT (and probably could for the NT) - the states all define their
own timezones, in various acts of the various state parliaments.

What you're seeing in information aimed mostly at visitors who want
to know what the time will be (Australians rarely need to look up web
sites to discover what time it is, nor when summer time starts or ends).
For outsiders, calling the time "Australian xxx" makes some kind of sense,
just as it might to call the time in New York (etc) "US Eastern Standard Time"
when being considered by non-natives (but that isn't its name inside the US).

None of the states define anything as "Australian" anything, nor do most of
them define a "Daylight" time (though some mention daylight savings in
the acts).

Summer Time is generally the official name for the time that applies
during the summer (and late spring/early autumn) which makes reasonable
sense, "daylight" makes no sense at all (nor does daylight saving, as
no daylight is saved, it is just moved around the clockface a little).

kre





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