Time in Melbourne

Victoria shares its clock-change dates with New South Wales, the ACT and Tasmania. Clocks go forward at 2:00 AM on the first Sunday of October and back at 3:00 AM on the first Sunday of April; in 2026 that meant April 5 and October 4. Queensland does not change, so for half the year Melbourne is an hour ahead of Brisbane, and South Australia stays half an hour behind all year.

Because the Southern Hemisphere's summer is the Northern Hemisphere's winter, Melbourne's gap with Europe and North America swings by two hours across the year. Against London it is eleven hours ahead in January but nine in July; against New York it is sixteen hours ahead in January and fourteen in July, with fifteen during the spring and autumn weeks when only one side is on summer time.

Melbourne lies at about 145° east, west of the 150th meridian that AEST is based on, and that offset plus daylight saving gives it some of the latest sunsets of any Australian city. Around the December solstice the sun rises near 5:55 AM and sets about 8:42 PM, nearly 14 hours 47 minutes of light. At the June solstice the day shrinks to about 9 hours 32 minutes, from roughly 7:35 AM to 5:08 PM. The weather, famously four seasons in one day, varies more than the light.

Offices typically work 9:00 to 17:00. The Australian Securities Exchange, based in Sydney, trades from 10:00 to 16:00 on the same clock as Melbourne. The first Tuesday of November is Melbourne Cup Day, a public holiday in metropolitan Melbourne. A 9:00 AM meeting in Melbourne falls at 5:00 PM, 6:00 PM or 7:00 PM the previous day in New York depending on the season. The AEST to EST page lists the hours.