By ANNA USHER

With the autumn equinox officially behind us and sunrise now occurring around 7am, many lower north shore locals are looking forward to the end of Daylight saving.

Daylight saving comes to an end every year on the first weekend of April, with Sunday April 7 as this year’s date to wind back the clocks.

This year, we’ve had to wait an extra week for the clock to go back to winter time, with the change affecting people in NSW, ACT, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania.

There is no change for those in Western Australia, the Northern territory and Queensland.

Daytime hours will continue to reduce until Australia’s shortest day, the winter solstice on June 21.

Daylight saving begins again in spring on October 6.

When do clocks change for daylight saving time?

On Sunday, April 7 at 3am (AEST), clocks will be turned back one hour to 2am. This means sunrise and sunset will be one hour earlier than the day before.

Does daylight saving time go forwards or backwards?

When daylight saving changes in April 2024, the clocks will go back an hour. Later in the year when October rolls around, they will be moved forward one hour to account for longer summer days.

This is also known as the “fall back time”, which gets its name from the US where autumn is also known as fall.

Avid clock observers often use the following to remember how daylight saving time works:

If you have entered the fall season, your clock will “fall back” an hour. If you are in the spring season, your clock will “spring forward” one hour.

What will the new time differences be between states and territories?

From April 7, NSW, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory, Tasmania and Queensland will all be on Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST).

The Northern Territory and South Australia will all be half an hour behind on Australian Central Standard Time (ACST).

The outback NSW town of Broken Hill also observes ACST time because of its remoteness.

Western Australia will be a full two hours behind the AEST states and territories on Australian Western Standard Time (AWST).

The history of Daylight Saving

George Vernon Hudson, an insect expert from New Zealand, came up with the idea of daylight saving in 1895. He suggested shifting the time by two hours, but his idea didn’t catch on.

During the First and Second World Wars, countries like Australia, France, Germany, and Britain introduced it to conserve fuel for lighting and heating.

Calls for its reintroduction began in Australia in the mid-1960s, with Tasmania the first state to officially adopt the policy in 1969.

NSW followed suit in 1971 after legislation was passed making it mandatory, initially running for about four months from late October to early March.

In 1975, Premier Robert Askin announced a referendum on daylight saving to settle the controversial issue. Out of nearly three million votes cast, two thirds (1.9 million residents) voted to keep it.

Since that time, the end date for daylight saving was pushed back to late March and early April from about 1995; to then run for five months, with the full six-month cycle being introduced in 2007.