Letter to the Editor of The Queensland Times

Compromise is a possibility on daylight saving

BECAUSE of its western geographical position and its proximity to Adelaide, Broken Hill in New South Wales is on South Australian time.

This has worked well for decades.

Following the International Meridian Conference in Washington DC in 1884, the world was divided into 24 standard time zones.

On Australia's east coast, standard time is based on the 150th meridian east of Greenwich which passes close to Goondiwindi in Queensland.

Because SEQ time is calculated on the true solar time at Goondiwindi and not Brisbane, the south-east corner is even worse off in summer.

Until 1894, when the Standard Time Act was passed, every city and town in Queensland was on a different time, calculated by reference to the position of the sun at noon at that location.

Brisbane had a different legal time, by several minutes, from Toowoomba, Rockhampton and Townsville which all had their own local time.

A split time zone would give the people of south-east Queensland daylight saving but would not force it on rural and regional Queensland.

It works in NSW and it could be a compromise which would work in Queensland to satisfy the wishes of the majority.

CR PAUL TULLY
Goodna