As Easter long weekend rolls in across South Australia, there’s one small but important change that can catch people out. Daylight saving has come to an end once again.
At 3am on Sunday morning, clocks will move back one hour to 2am, giving us an extra hour of sleep and officially marking the shift into shorter, cooler days.
For most of us, it simply means a slightly earlier sunset and a bit more darkness in the evenings. The end of daylight saving always falls on the first Sunday in April, which happens to neatly line up with Easter this year.
The time shift is usually celebrated in summer by those living close to the city, as it means longer sunset sessions and after work beach trips.
But while the change itself is simple, the idea behind daylight saving has long been controversial.
In fact, daylight saving in Australia has a long and surprisingly rocky history, one that stretches back more than a century.
The idea itself dates to the late 1800s, when New Zealand entomologist George Hudson proposed shifting clocks to make better use of daylight, but it wasn’t until World War One that the concept became reality.
Australia introduced daylight saving in 1916 as a wartime fuel-saving measure, but it didn’t last long as the public response was swift and brutal, with newspapers mocking the idea and by 1917, it was scrapped.
It made a brief return during World War Two, before disappearing again for decades and popping back up in 1967 by Tasmania. Other states followed, with South Australia and most of the eastern states adopting it in 1971.
Even today, Australia remains divided. Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory still opt out, creating multiple time zones across the country during summer.
And the debate hasn’t gone away. Supporters point to lifestyle benefits and increased economic activity, while critics argue it disrupts sleep, impacts health, and may even contribute to short-term increases in road accidents following the clock change.
For now, though, daylight saving remains a fixture across South Australia, quietly shaping how we live, work and socialise each summer.
As we head into the Easter weekend, enjoy the extra hour of sleep.
For more info on daylight savings, click here.
