Australia’s summer time zones,
showing hours ahead of UT (GMT).
The unofficial red +8 zone only
applies to me and my home.

Is it possible for an individual to live according to standard time while everyone around him adopts daylight savings time? I’m not sure, but I’m going to find out.

Yesterday Western Australians put their clocks forward for the start of daylight saving. We don’t normally have it here in WA, but we are in the second year of a trial period before yet another referendum to see if daylight saving will be adopted permanently.

We’ve already had three trial periods followed by referendums, and have voted against daylight saving three times over three decades, but our politicians clearly don’t like the decisions of those they allegedly represent. Last year I blogged about it - see “Democracy in Western Australia?” for the full story.

If a majority of my fellow citizens had voted for daylight saving, I’d accept it and reluctantly conform. But they didn’t. I object to the undemocratic way the government is forcing the issue against the demonstrated wishes of its people, and I’m feeling a little recalcitrant.

Last year I adjusted my clocks (all 14 of them) but managed to remain in my standard-time routine. This year I’ve not changed any clocks at all. I’ve declared myself and my home “daylight saving free zones”, and continue to live according to Western Standard Time as far as possible.

Of course there willl need to be some adjustments where I interact with society around me. I’m a student, and my classes now start an hour earlier (by my watch). No problem - I won’t need to get up much earlier as I already allow spare time at the start of the day. The timetable changes caused by daylight saving will just rob me of that spare time in the coolest part of the day (making it daylight robbery, not daylight saving!). My life is relatively uncluttered by appointments, and I’m not currently working, so I don’t expect any great problems with being an hour behind everyone around me. Keeping the time that better suits me and the climate should offset any inconveniences.

How practical will it really be to operate in my own time zone? Will it make much difference to anything? I don’t know, but I’m giving it a go, and will blog about the outcome. It’s my own subtle protest against goverments who ask their citizens what they want then disregard their answers.

Update: After writing this, I saw a story in the West Australian newspaper (see “Protesters glad to be behind the times“) about a Murchison couple who are ignoring daylight saving, as they did last year too. It seems many others in rural WA are doing likewise, so I’m not alone.