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The annual transition to daylight saving time has once again highlighted the time zone divide between NSW and Queensland. While southern states enjoy an extra hour of evening sunlight, businesses in the Tweed Heads region are grappling with the logistical challenges of serving customers from two different time zones. Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate has renewed his call for daylight saving to be introduced in south-east Queensland, but the proposal remains controversial and faces significant opposition.
In the wee hours of Sunday morning, daylight saving kicked in for the southern states, with clocks skipping forward by an hour from 2am to 3am.
Queensland Daylight Saving Debate Intensifies
But while the citizens of NSW, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and the ACT get to enjoy an extra hour of sunshine after clocking off, Queensland remains the eastern seaboard's outlier. Daylight saving is an annual talking point on the Gold Coast, with Mayor Tom Tate on Wednesday reiterating calls for it to be introduced in Queensland's south-east corner. Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate acknowledged the lack of support from cows for daylight saving in south-east Queensland.
Tate suggested drawing a new time zone boundary north of Noosa - cheekily acknowledging the lack of support elsewhere from cows and the wider dairy industry. But for businesses in the NSW border town of Tweed Heads, as well as Coolangatta on the Queensland side, the issue is no joke. Ellen Clark, a cosmetic nurse, recently opened a business in Tweed Heads and is bracing for late arrivals by her clientele, most of whom are in Queensland.
Previously, Clark commuted to Brisbane for work from Tweed Heads, where her partner is based, but decided to set up shop locally after the birth of her first child.
Border Businesses Adapt to Time Difference
"I used to have to stay on Queensland time while my partner would operate on NSW time," she said. Sean McMillan, who is new to Tweed Heads, has just set up a barber shop on Bay Street.
"All my systems go off bookings, so I'm trying to do some research, and I'm changing my hours a little bit to catch people on both sides of the border," he said. "I'm sure there'll be people coming in an hour early or an hour late for bookings ... It's just one of those puzzles to work out.
" Queensland Premier David Crisafulli was not keen to buy into Tate's suggestion when asked about the issue in Mackay on Thursday. "I've lived at both ends of the state, and I'm here for uniting Queensland, not dividing it," he said. Queensland trialled daylight saving between 1989 and 1992 before it was comprehensively rejected in a state referendum.
Daylight Saving Time Change NSW Queensland Tweed Heads Border Businesses Tom Tate David Crisafulli
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