Daylight saving: Meet the man turning Sydney’s clocks forwards

At 2am on Sunday our phones will automatically jump forward an hour for daylight saving — but this man will be behind the cogs turning the hands himself. Meet Sydney’s go-to clockmaker.

At 2am on Sunday, while most of us are asleep, Andrew Markerink will be at the top of the Sydney Town Hall turning the clock’s hands forward an hour.

He is Sydney’s go-to horologist – or clockmaker – working on the city’s biggest timepieces that also include those at Central Station and Hyde Park Barracks.

“The changeover will happen at exactly 2am, and we sometimes get a big cheer and a shout from people on George St when we manually move the system over,” Mr Markerink said.

Installed in 1884, the Town Hall clocktower is one of Sydney’s most beautiful engineering marvels, and one very few get to see up close.

Andrew Markerink is Sydney’s most trusted clockmaker. Picture: Max Mason-Hubers

Mr Markerink spends his days restoring and maintaining this and other clocktowers right across the country.

It’s up to him to make sure the clocks – many with a mechanism about the size of a car – work smoothly.

Andrew observed the Town Hall bells. Picture: Max Mason-Hubers

Behind the Town Hall clockface. Picture: Max Mason-Hubers

“The sheer size is the biggest challenge,” he said.

“It’s still intricate work, but you may need two or three people to pick up a single wheel.

“In one day, we’ll go from working on a pocket watch from 1690 all the way to the massive General Post Office building in Martin Place, with a clock that weighs 25 tonnes.”

The daylight saving switch marks the busiest days in a horologist’s calendar, a 36-hour shift starting at Customs House and finishing in Canberra.

Central Station’s clock was fitted to a GPS network in 2014 and is now connected to a centralised time service along with the entire metropolitan transport network.

Despite most of the giant clocks being built more than 100 years ago, Mr Markerink said his goal was to make sure all clock towers in Sydney were operational.

Restoration is under way at the Department of Lands Building, the Glebe Town Hall and the Chief Secretary’s Building, where the minute hand mysteriously vanished recently.

Workers testing the Central Station clocktower mechanism, circa 1924.

Mr Markerink’s hope of getting all the clocks ticking is shared by Business Sydney executive director and heritage enthusiast Paul Nicolaou.

“It would be great if all the clock towers in the CBD are working and tell the right time, not only from a historical perspective but also for locals and tourists to know what time it is by looking at the towers or hearing their chimes on the hour,” he said.

OUR OLD CLOCKS

Hyde Park Barracks, erjected 1819

Sydney Town Hall, erected 1884

Lands Department Building, erected 1938

General Post Office, erected 1891

Central Station Clocktower, erected 1921

Customs House, erected 1897