AEST Time Now

What this page shows

So you want to know what time it is on the Australian east coast right now. Maybe you have a call with Sydney or Brisbane, a flight to catch, a match starting on eastern time, or someone to reach before their evening winds down. That is what the clock at the top of this page is for. It shows the current time in the Australian Eastern zone and ticks forward every second, so there is nothing for you to work out by hand.

Wherever in the world you are reading this from, the clock tracks Australian Eastern time and keeps itself right on its own, even across the days when the clocks change. The next section explains a wrinkle in this one that is worth knowing.

AEST, AEDT, and the part of the east that does not change

Here is the part that trips people up, though. The eastern side of Australia does not all keep the same time in summer. Some of it changes its clocks for daylight saving and some of it does not.

The states that observe daylight saving, New South Wales, Victoria, the ACT, and Tasmania, spring forward each summer onto Australian Eastern Daylight Time, or AEDT. Queensland does not. It stays on standard time, Australian Eastern Standard Time, all year round. So in summer, the east coast splits in two.

So there are two settings behind eastern Australian time:

• AEST, Australian Eastern Standard Time. Ten hours ahead of UTC, written UTC plus 10. The year-round time in Queensland, and the winter time everywhere on the east coast.
• AEDT, Australian Eastern Daylight Time. Eleven hours ahead of UTC, written UTC plus 11, one hour ahead of AEST. The summer time in New South Wales, Victoria, the ACT, and Tasmania.

This page follows Brisbane, in Queensland, which holds steady on AEST the whole year.

What AEST actually is

AEST stands for Australian Eastern Standard Time, and it sits ten hours ahead of UTC, written as UTC plus 10. It is the easternmost of Australia's three main zones and the most populated, covering the east coast where most of the country lives. It runs half an hour ahead of central Australia and two hours ahead of Western Australia.

The thing to hold on to is that AEST is the year-round time for Queensland and the winter time for the rest of the east coast. In the southern summer, the southern states leave it for AEDT, while Queensland stays put. Because this page is set to Brisbane, it shows that steady AEST all year, which makes it a clean reference for the eastern offset itself.

How to tell if the east is on AEST or AEDT

Queensland is always on AEST, so for Brisbane there is nothing to track. For the southern states that do change, New South Wales, Victoria, the ACT, and Tasmania, daylight saving lands on two Sundays, in the southern spring and autumn:

• Spring forward. On the first Sunday of October, those states jump ahead one hour. AEST becomes AEDT, moving from UTC plus 10 to UTC plus 11. Daylight saving has begun.
• Fall back. On the first Sunday of April, they drop back one hour. AEDT becomes AEST again, at UTC plus 10, back in line with Queensland.

So the rule, for the states that observe it, is short. From the first Sunday of October to the first Sunday of April, the southern east coast is on AEDT. The rest of the year it is on AEST, and Queensland is on AEST throughout. Place today between those two Sundays and you will know which one a southern city like Sydney is on.

Converting AEST to other time zones

The table below works from AEST at UTC plus 10, which is Brisbane all year and the southern cities in winter. In the southern summer, when Sydney, Melbourne, and the others are on AEDT, add one hour to their side. Here is the quick reference, assuming it is 12 noon AEST.

For Europe and the Americas, keep in mind that Australia runs daylight saving in the opposite half of the year, so the gap to a place like London or New York can swing by up to two hours across the seasons as the two sides move on and off their summer time. For those, lean on the live clock above.

A few quick examples

Let us run a few, so you can see how this works.

Say it is 12 noon in Brisbane, on AEST. Adelaide, in central Australia, is half an hour behind at 11:30 in the morning. Perth, in the west, is two hours behind at 10 in the morning. Japan is an hour behind, so 11 in the morning in Tokyo.

Now the summer split. In the southern summer, Sydney springs forward to AEDT and is an hour ahead of UTC plus 10. Brisbane does not change. So while Sydney and Brisbane share the same clock in winter, in summer Sydney runs a full hour ahead of Brisbane, even though both are on the east coast. If you are setting up a call between the two, that hour is easy to miss.

For a call to London, the gap moves with the seasons on both ends. Brisbane is normally ten hours ahead of London in the British summer and eight hours ahead in the British winter, so the live clock is the safer guide than a single remembered number.

Where Eastern Australian time is used

The eastern zone covers the most populated part of the country, taking in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, and the Australian Capital Territory, with cities like Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra, and Hobart. All of them sit at UTC plus 10 in winter.

The split comes in summer. Queensland and Brisbane stay on AEST all year, while New South Wales, Victoria, the ACT, and Tasmania move to AEDT. To the west, central Australia at ACST sits half an hour behind, and Perth on the far side of the country is two hours behind.

Cities on Eastern Australian time

If you want the live clock for a particular eastern city rather than the zone as a whole, here is one to start with:

• Sydney time now (on AEST in winter, AEDT in summer)

To compare across the country, see ACST Time Now for central Australia and Perth time now for the west. For the global reference these offsets are measured from, see UTC Time Now.

Questions people ask

What time is it in AEST right now?

The clock near the top of this page is the answer, and it updates every second. It follows Brisbane, which stays on AEST all year, so it reads the steady eastern standard time. Southern cities like Sydney move an hour ahead onto AEDT in summer.

Is the east coast on AEST or AEDT right now?

It depends where. Queensland is on AEST all year. New South Wales, Victoria, the ACT, and Tasmania are on AEDT from the first Sunday of October to the first Sunday of April, and on AEST the rest of the year.

How many hours ahead of UTC is AEST?

Ten hours ahead, written UTC plus 10. When the southern states are on daylight saving as AEDT, they are eleven hours ahead, UTC plus 11. Queensland stays at UTC plus 10 throughout.

Why does Sydney change but Brisbane does not?

Because daylight saving in Australia is set state by state. New South Wales, where Sydney is, observes it and moves to AEDT each summer. Queensland, where Brisbane is, voted against it and stays on AEST all year. So the two share a clock in winter but are an hour apart in summer.

Why is Australian daylight saving in the opposite months?

Because Australia is in the southern hemisphere, where summer falls around December to February. Daylight saving runs through the warmer half of the year, from October to April, the reverse of Europe and North America.

What is the IANA name for Eastern Australian time?

It is Australia/Brisbane for the Queensland version that stays on standard time, in the IANA time zone database your phone and your computer use. Sydney, which switches to AEDT, uses Australia/Sydney. Australia/Brisbane is what drives the live clock on this page.

References

1. Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). Time Zone Database (the tz database), home of the Australia/Brisbane and Australia/Sydney identifiers. https://www.iana.org/time-zones
2. National Measurement Institute (NMI), Department of Industry, Science and Resources, which maintains UTC(AUS), the legal standard for time in Australia under the National Measurement Act 1960. https://www.industry.gov.au/national-measurement-institute/nmi-services/physical-measurement-services/time-and-frequency-services
3. Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM), Time Department, which maintains Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the reference Australian time is set against. https://www.bipm.org/en/work-programme/time