Daylight saving ‘therapy’ for border residents as Gold Coast and Tweed prepare for six months of time zone confusion

“Share your pain,” the sign read and share their pain they did. Take a passenger seat as the Gold Coast Bulletin offers ‘Free Daylight Saving Counselling’ to residents about to live in two time zones for six months.

Elanora’s Claire Rorke shares her pain about another season of daylight saving with the Gold Coast Bulletin’s ‘therapist’. Photo: John Gass

“SHARE your pain,” the sign read and share their pain they did.

The woman fearful of applying for jobs across the border. The mum who still gets confused despite living with dual time zones for 15 years. The young dad preparing for the chaos of cross-border day care.

And that’s without even mentioning the daylight saving dilemma faced by Terranora’s Marissa Herangi.

“I find friends in Queensland don’t consider us when making plans,” she said. “They will invite you to a BBQ at 6pm but that’s already 7pm for us, which means we won’t eat until 8pm and won’t be getting home until 10 or 11.

“You have to constantly remind people you’re on daylight saving.”

And how does that make you feel? “I just feel like I’m not being considered.”

At which point the mother-of-three burst into laughter because she knows this is a first-world problem.

Like all who took up the Gold Coast Bulletin’s offer of ‘Free Daylight Saving Counselling’ on the Coolangatta Esplanade yesterday, Marissa knows there are bigger issues in the world but that didn’t stop her baring her soul about living in two time zones for the next six months.

“It’s only two days to go?” she exclaimed when told NSW residents would be winding their clocks forward from 2am Sunday. “Oh, my God. I just dread daylight saving.”

Not the concept. Like everyone who opened up to our ‘therapist’, she loves the extra sunlight it brings at the end of the day. She just hates living near a border that doubles as a time machine for half of the year.

Ditto Rachel Love: “I still get super confused and I’ve been living with this for 15 years.”

Rachel and her young family live at Bilambil Heights. Both she and her hubby work across the border. Cue family chaos.

“Before I start a job, I have to discuss it with my employer because (daylight saving) does impact on your work day,” she said. “The worst thing for me is school holiday care. Just now I realised that they will shut at 5.30pm, which will be 4.30pm for me at work.”

Rachel began to look unsure. “Is that right?” she asked. “Yeah, it is, isn’t it?”

Like she said, it can get confusing.

Elanora’s Claire Rorke has no such doubts about one thing.

“I won’t apply for jobs on the other side of the border,” said the social worker, who has to factor in four school-aged children and a hubby who often works away when planning her days.

“It would be ideal to travel south (from home) to avoid the traffic but I can’t get my head around how crossing the border during daylight saving would work.”

Coolangatta accountant Ryu Noai has his own battles ahead. Namely a two-year-old called Benji who attends day care in a whole other time zone.

“I hadn’t thought of that,” he said. “That’s going to be a challenge, just getting him to bed an hour earlier to keep him on that (NSW) sleep schedule,” he said.

First-world problems but problems nevertheless — and ultimately one even free counselling can’t solve.

“No,” Marissa laughed. “There’s nothing you can say to make it better.”