angelaos

I was talking to a brit who just returned here to the UK today & she told me Brisbane doesn't have daylight saving (?) & that it gets dark at 5pm just in time for when you come home from work. So, I was wondering, what do you do in the evening? I was under the impression people went to the beach after work or had barbies. No one ever mentioned running indoors as it was dark & the insects were out. Is it like this all year?

And what exactly is daylight saving & how much does it save you? Where is it lightest, longest? Please let me in on the secret life on Aus at night.

TrickyTree

The standard joke is all QLD'ers are in bed by 8....and it aint far from the truth!!!!

What I find is there is little dusk in Brissie its either brilliant light or pitch black outside.

spartacus

That may be so, but they have the best kept curtain in Oz.

VikkiL

During the week, the evenings are for doing what you probably do every night which is helping kids with homework and generally getting ready for the day after so the lack of light doesnt really affect us that much midweek. I can still go to the beach with my boys after school for an hour if I want to and my eldest can play out until 5.30 ish before he has dinner.

At the weekends, most people are up and at 'em by 6am and out mowing their lawns by 7am! We still have barbies at dinnertime and winter is a great time for that as the mozzies etc arent out to get you! In summer it gets dark at around 7.30pm ish and the sunset is lovely to look at whilst you have a glass of wine!! Works for me

Bernieboy

Soo ******* true mate,when i was over for me wedding in march i was always fast a kip about 8- 9 in the evening and sipping coffee at 5-6 next morning wtf.Here in blighty im lucky to be in bed at midnight

Buzzy--Bee

The best place to live for long light summer evenings in Australia is Tasmania. Melbourne is a very good alternative too. This was one of the many reasons we chose Melbourne over Queensland, in the summer it is light until after 9.30pm and often very warm too. In Melbourne we do all go down to the beach and have barbies after work in the summer while all those Queenslanders are preparing their bedtime warm milk and stumbling around trying to find a torch...

Buzzy

rabsody

7.30? My part of Brisbane must get dark earlier or something

emigratingherberts

Same in Sydney. Dark just after 5pm in Winter and latest 8.30ish in Summer. Not many families I know have barbies after work as everyone works till late in the evening here to pay the mortgage or rent. Its not the norm to work 9-5. Its the city of work, work and more work.

BadgeIsBack

You get it in the UK too. Same deal. It's called British Summer Time.

Tassy is on a similar latitude to the UK and as such gets the extremes of sunlight across winter/summer.

In Melbourne, you get less summer light than in the UK at the solstice but longer days in mid winter so as always it balances out.

Absolutely a very good reason to choose Melbourne over many other cities. For some, lack of DST in QLD and in Perth (until last year when a trial of DST started ) really hurts.

The other bonus is that this year, the clocks go back 1 month earlier in spring (and this year one week later in autumn which is partly the result of the extension first trialled during the Commonwealth Games). This splits the year into 2 6 month segments. Previously, the southern States had 7 months winter time, and only 5 of summer.

Now where's my honey. I like it in milk.

datamile

The problem with DST in queensland is that 4 cows in far north won't be able to sleep properly, where as 95% of SEQ want it. Bright sunshine at 4am all summer, and not much in the evening.

MartinLuther

Melbourne also benefits from being in the west of its timezone. Because of this we get a (marginally) later summer sunset than Launceston in Tassie.

lesleys

In Brissie sun sets at 5pm after over 10 hours of clear sunshine and 24 deg right now. In summer it gets dark a bit later but it's a relief in hot weather - who needs sunshine for more than 14 hours?

rabsody

Indeed, but you neglected to mention the myriad good reasons why no DST in Qld (as anyone who lives here knows, these are bonafide reasons regularly quoted):

• there will be 25 hours in the day
• everyone will have to work an extra hour in the day
• the curtains will fade
• kids won't be able to get to sleep at night
• if people from other faraway places like Melbourne and Sydney move here and want DST, then f*** off home, Qld's perfect just the way it is and we don't want you here anyway
• OR get up an hour earlier to enjoy the sunshine in the morning (hmm, nothing I love more than a brisk walk at 4am before my day and going to bed at 7pm
  

*sigh*

moneypenny20

So it gets dark early, so what Kids still have after school activities, if they're outside ones they are done under floodlights, no big deal. The world doesn't stop because the sun's disappeared. Kids still have homework, I still have cooking, cleaning etc etc, hubby is still in the shed making something, repairing something - we use lights

BadgeIsBack

Indeedy does.

We've passed the 21st, or the day it really now falls on, so it is downhill all the way to DST. Hurrah!

Like it I does.