Americans are furious about the “confusing mess” that is Australia’s daylight saving routine – with some claiming the divergent time zones have locked them out of the country entirely.
The conversation started when podcaster Jack Mac revealed his anger in a video.
“Every time I’m reminded of how Australia handles time zones, I get angry for no reason,” he said, pointing to a map of the country. “The daylight savings part of this image infuriates me.”
‘Why do we work with 30-minute time zones?’ he asked about the Northern Territory and South Australia. ‘I know there aren’t many people living there (in the middle of Australia), but why is that so? Why is the top during daylight savings time still 7:30 a.m., but the bottom is 8:30 a.m.?’
‘Because of this I will never go to Australia. I just decided,” he claimed.
Americans are furious about the ‘confusing mess’ that is Australia’s daylight saving routine
Jack was also dismayed that several parts of the country do not observe daylight saving time at all.
“And this part will keep it at 6pm anyway,” he said of Western Australia.
The US has nine different time zones compared to Australia’s five.
In some parts of Australia, the time will be set back by 60 minutes on Sunday April 7 from 2am to 3am.
While New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT all change their clocks in early October and early April, Western Australia, Queensland and the NT are refusing to make the change.
The main reason is that while it’s great for nine-to-fives and kids playing after school, for those who work in industries like agriculture and have to clock in at 5 a.m. or earlier, it’s a major hurdle find it difficult to work in the dark.
Warm, tropical climates are also not ideal for an extra hour of sunlight, as many residents want to escape the sun and not spend another hour in it every day.
Americans still couldn’t wrap their heads around the “bizarre” card.
“I have nothing to do with this, but this needs to change,” one person said.
‘We have to get rid of daylight saving time completely. I don’t care what time we go, but let’s just stay the course. And half time zones shouldn’t exist,” another claimed.
An American man added: ‘The wildlife and insects pretty much made me never want to visit Australia, but the time zone graph firmly convinced me that ‘that’s not going to happen’. Besides, I don’t want to be on a plane for that long anyway.’