Time in Canberra
Australia · Australia/Sydney · latitude -35.28°
Reading your clock…
Canberra changes its clocks twice a year
Standard time is UTC+10:00 and daylight saving time is UTC+11:00. The shift is 1 hour, and it is the reason the distance between Canberra and anywhere else is not a single number.
| Date | Local time | Change | New offset |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sunday, 4 October 2026 | 02:00 → 03:00 | Forward 60 min | UTC+11:00 |
| Sunday, 4 April 2027 | 03:00 → 02:00 | Back 60 min | UTC+10:00 |
| Sunday, 3 October 2027 | 02:00 → 03:00 | Forward 60 min | UTC+11:00 |
Same clock, different sky: Sydney share Australia/Sydney. Sunrise and sunset differ between them because latitude does, even though the clock does not.
Time difference from Canberra
Where a range is shown, the gap genuinely changes during the year. That is not rounding or hedging — it is two governments moving their clocks on different weekends.
| City | Difference now | Across the year |
|---|---|---|
| London | 9 hours behind | −11h / −10h / −9h |
| New York | 14 hours behind | −16h / −15h / −14h |
| Los Angeles | 17 hours behind | −19h / −18h / −17h |
| Chicago | 15 hours behind | −17h / −16h / −15h |
| Toronto | 14 hours behind | −16h / −15h / −14h |
| Paris | 8 hours behind | −10h / −9h / −8h |
| Berlin | 8 hours behind | −10h / −9h / −8h |
| Dubai | 6 hours behind | −7h / −6h |
| Mumbai | 4 hours 30 minutes behind | −5h30 / −4h30 |
| Singapore | 2 hours behind | −3h / −2h |
| Hong Kong | 2 hours behind | −3h / −2h |
| Tokyo | 1 hour behind | −2h / −1h |
| Sydney | the same time | constant |
| Auckland | 2 hours ahead | +2h / +3h |
| São Paulo | 13 hours behind | −14h / −13h |
| UTC | 10 hours behind | −11h / −10h |
Daylight in Canberra through the year
From about 9.8 hours in June to 14.6 hours in December. This is the part a plain clock leaves out: 17:00 is a bright evening in one month and long dark in another.
| Month | Sunrise | Sunset | Daylight |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 05:06 | 19:15 | 14h 9m |
| February | 05:39 | 18:50 | 13h 11m |
| March | 06:04 | 18:12 | 12h 8m |
| April | 06:28 | 17:30 | 11h 2m |
| May | 06:52 | 17:01 | 10h 9m |
| June | 07:09 | 16:55 | 9h 46m |
| July | 07:04 | 17:10 | 10h 6m |
| August | 06:36 | 17:33 | 10h 57m |
| September | 05:53 | 17:55 | 12h 2m |
| October | 05:11 | 18:19 | 13h 8m |
| November | 04:43 | 18:50 | 14h 7m |
| December | 04:42 | 19:15 | 14h 33m |
Daylight length is accurate. The clock times of sunrise and sunset assume each city sits at the centre of its time zone, which can put them up to about an hour and a quarter out for places near a zone's edge — Madrid being the standard example. Day length is unaffected.
Questions
About time in Canberra
What time zone is Canberra in?
Canberra uses the IANA time zone Australia/Sydney, which is UTC+10:00 in standard time and UTC+11:00 while daylight saving is in force. The same zone covers Sydney.
Does Canberra observe daylight saving time?
Yes. Clocks in Canberra move by 1 hour, and the next change is on Sunday, 4 October 2026.
Why does the time difference to Canberra keep changing?
Because the two places do not change their clocks on the same weekend, and in opposite hemispheres they change in opposite directions. London is a clear example: it sits 11 hours behind, then 10 hours behind, then 9 hours behind across the year rather than one fixed distance.
How much daylight does Canberra get?
Around 14.6 hours at the longest, in December, and about 9.8 hours at the shortest, in June. The table on this page lists sunrise and sunset through the year. Times are calculated from Canberra's latitude of -35.28° and are approximate to within about an hour for cities that sit well away from the centre of their time zone.