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My guess, as an Australian, is that if the government ever decided to get rid of it there would be a large and vocal petition to keep it. Just because it's fun

My guess, as an Australian, is that if the government ever decided to get rid of it there would be a large and vocal petition to keep it. Just because it's funny.

femto 4y ago
It's already unofficial, so the government can hardly get rid of it. Apart from maybe being convenient for the locals, I suspect the real reason is that it benefits tourism. It gives tourists another reason to visit and it generates publicity (here we are discussing it on HN). If the government does have an opinion it would probably be support, in that it generates tourist dollars and doesn't inconvenience anyone, apart from a few people who might miss out on happy hour in the pub.
- taberiand 4y ago
  Oh right - somehow my brain glossed over that in the article. Probably due to the official-looking sign
- nirimda 4y ago
  How many tourists are going to drive that far? It's a 13 hour drive from Adelaide, 12 hours from Perth. I've only ever heard of people driving to Perth, stopping at a roadhouse, and getting weirded out by the clock not matching the time they thought it was. And if it was attracting any significant amount of tourism, you'd think they'd be able to support a population of somewhat more than 200 people scattered over hundreds of square kilometres. Surely the reason it exists is just because it does. Legally valid things done in this area are done on standard time - e.g. the polls close at 6:45 local time because they close at 6pm standard time. But it doesn't really matter what time two people meet when they say "lets meet at 2pm" and trying to change that would require an unwarranted intrusion and an unnecessary expense. I'm told the area around Broken Hill is equivalently odd - although there's official boundaries for the timezone there (Yancowinna County, or somesuch) but there's also the actual boundaries that people use (depending on whether they agree that they're in Broken Hill or not). The expense and intrusion of trying to enforce strict timezone boundaries on boundary-area dwellers just isn't justified to the people who live near them and it isn't justified to the people in the capital cities. It's different in the capital city, or on the more heavily populated border areas (e.g. Tweed Heads/Coolangatta area) where you're more likely to have to do business with a stranger.
  - femto 4y ago
    You wouldn't drive all that way just for the timezone, but tourists already driving across/around Australia would probably stop just to say they have experienced the odd timezone. My take is that it's part of a bigger picture of having an aura of "oddness", as being independent is part of the outback mythology.

My guess, as an Australian, is that if the government ever decided to get rid of it there would be a large and vocal petition to keep it. Just because it's funny.

femto 4y ago

It's already unofficial, so the government can hardly get rid of it. Apart from maybe being convenient for the locals, I suspect the real reason is that it benefits tourism. It gives tourists another reason to visit and it generates publicity (here we are discussing it on HN). If the government does have an opinion it would probably be support, in that it generates tourist dollars and doesn't inconvenience anyone, apart from a few people who might miss out on happy hour in the pub.

taberiand 4y ago
Oh right - somehow my brain glossed over that in the article. Probably due to the official-looking sign
nirimda 4y ago
How many tourists are going to drive that far? It's a 13 hour drive from Adelaide, 12 hours from Perth. I've only ever heard of people driving to Perth, stopping at a roadhouse, and getting weirded out by the clock not matching the time they thought it was. And if it was attracting any significant amount of tourism, you'd think they'd be able to support a population of somewhat more than 200 people scattered over hundreds of square kilometres. Surely the reason it exists is just because it does. Legally valid things done in this area are done on standard time - e.g. the polls close at 6:45 local time because they close at 6pm standard time. But it doesn't really matter what time two people meet when they say "lets meet at 2pm" and trying to change that would require an unwarranted intrusion and an unnecessary expense. I'm told the area around Broken Hill is equivalently odd - although there's official boundaries for the timezone there (Yancowinna County, or somesuch) but there's also the actual boundaries that people use (depending on whether they agree that they're in Broken Hill or not). The expense and intrusion of trying to enforce strict timezone boundaries on boundary-area dwellers just isn't justified to the people who live near them and it isn't justified to the people in the capital cities. It's different in the capital city, or on the more heavily populated border areas (e.g. Tweed Heads/Coolangatta area) where you're more likely to have to do business with a stranger.
- femto 4y ago
  You wouldn't drive all that way just for the timezone, but tourists already driving across/around Australia would probably stop just to say they have experienced the odd timezone. My take is that it's part of a bigger picture of having an aura of "oddness", as being independent is part of the outback mythology.