Queensland's geography and the case against daylight savings

DAYLIGHT Savings is here once again - though not for those of us in Queensland.

USQ Pro Vice-Chancellor John Cole. Picture: Cordell Richardson

DAYLIGHT saving is here once again - though not for those of us in Queensland.

And the University of Southern Queensland's Professor John Cole OAM reckons it's a good thing the Sunshine State misses out.

Whether or not to wind back the clocks an hour in Queensland has long been a divisive issue, one that seems to be characterised as an us and them argument between city and country folk.

"But it's really to my mind mostly do do with geography," Prof Cole said.

"It's not always about culture and some of the comments made by city people about rural or regional opponents to daylight savings are quite patronising... they treat them like idiots."

But perhaps it's those in the eastern parts of the state who need to put on their thinking caps.

The fact is, Queensland is a huge state for one time zone, which begins to the west of Lord Howe Island, and extends all the way to the state's border with the Northern Territory.

"The sun moves around the equator at around 15 degrees for every time zone," Prof Cole said.

Mount Isa and Brisbane are about 14 degrees apart, and when you take into account the fact that the time zone doesn't begin at Brisbane, you can see why regional Queenslanders are opposed to daylight savings, Professor Cole said.

"While people might be basking on the beaches on the terraces of Melbourne in the middle of summer with daylight savings - it means getting kids out of bed in the dark to put them on a bus to school and getting them home at the height of the heat of the day in western Queensland," he said.

Professor Cole said one of the arguments for daylight saving was following the lead of NSW and Victoria, which switch over on the first Sunday of October.

"The only reason it exists in NSW and Victoria is that most people live in the cities and the cities have the largest voting population," he said.

"Whereas here in Queensland, we're more decentralised. Governments have realised that if they want to alienate much of Queensland - give them daylight saving."

Professor Cole said bringing in two time zones wasn't an option because it would only exacerbate the disconnect between SEQ and the rest of the state.

Originally published as Queensland's geography and the case against daylight savings