These are the time zones of the world, and these are the timezones of Australia.
But these maps are missing an entire timezone, in fact all these maps are.
Australian Central Western Standard Time.
UTC+8:45.
Central Western Time is the timezone for this little corner of Australia, along the Eyre
Highway.
Just east of the tiny settlement of Caiguna in Western Australia, a sign on the highway
lets you know to change your clock.
Central Western Time, or Border Time time extends about 340km, from just outside Caiguna
to Eucla in Western Australia, and just over the state border to Border Village in South
Australia.
These roadhouses and tiny accompanying settlements have a total population of just a few hundred
people.
So - how did this stretch of the highway get its own timezone, why is it 8 hours and 45
minutes ahead of universal time, and why is it missing from so many maps?
This section of the country sits on the Nullarbor Plain, and fulfils many of the stereotypes
about Outback Australia - It’s hot.
It’s dusty.
There are barely any trees, and very few people live here.
It’s at least a 5 hour drive in either direction to the nearest small town of at least 1000
people.
But because of its location, Eucla was the perfect spot for a telegraph station in 1877
- a link in the chain that connected the west coast to the rest of the continent.
It’s hard to find an official source on the origins of this timezone, but it could
have been to avoid confusion at the telegraph station, as Western Australia and South Australia
are in different timezones, but the telegraph station is near the border.
I was told the same story at the Eucla roadhouse when I visited, but it also should be noted
that back in the 1800s borders weren’t as fixed as they are now, especially out in the
middle of the Nullarbor and especially because states didn’t even exist back then, they
were separate crown colonies, and the definitive surveying and marking the boundary on the
ground didn’t happen till the 1920s.
So there were lots of reasons to be confused about what time it was near the border.
Since 1899, South Australia’s timezone has been based on the half hour - so a timezone
between Western Australia and South Australia, is set on the quarter hour.
But even though the telegraph station is long-since decommissioned, the border timezone lives
on - because for the locals, its actually very practical to have an extra timezone between
Western and South Australia.
Because Eucla is more than 1000km east of Perth - during summer, when the sun rises
at 5am in Perth - it would be rising earlier than 4:30am in Eucla, if they shared the same
timezone.
With Central Western time, that difference can be normalised, so the people of the Nullarbor
get more daylight during their local working hours.
Border Time also allows the small community of roadhouses along the Eyre highway to function
as just that - its own community.
Without Central Western Time, the roadhouse and staff of Border Village, just 12km down
the highway from Eucla and over the South Australian border, would be 1 and a half hours
ahead from the rest of the roadhouses on this stretch of the Nullarbor.
Border Time allows these roadhouses to share a timezone, regardless of what time their
parent states declare it to be.
And that brings me to the last question - why is Central Western time missing from so many
maps?
Well, it’s because neither Western Australian nor South Australian, nor the Australian governments
recognise it as an official timezone.
Despite it being signed on the road, locals living by it and tracked by various timezone
databases - it’s not an official timezone according to the states that it overlaps.
But, that doesn’t make it any less real.
You can set your phone to it, or you can go to Google right now and find out what the
time is in Eucla - and it’ll give you the time in local Australian Central Western Standard
Time.
So although many maps do still show Central Western time as a tiny little outline, plenty
also don’t, showing its unofficial status seems to have created a bit of confusion amongst
timezone maps - with some maps showing all the timezones tracked by common timezone databases
and others showing only official timezones.
But for now, border time remains a little surprise for visitors to the area, a little
rebellion of the locals doing what’s convenient to them.
A little quirk of Australian timezones.
So if you’re ever driving the Nullarbor you can look forward to experiencing Australia’s
tiny and somewhat hidden timezone.
Thanks for watching.