‘OMG, we’re back here again’: Edgy business owners rue the return of daylight saving

In the wee hours of Sunday morning, daylight saving kicked in for the southern states, with clocks skipping forward by an hour from 2am to 3am.

But while the citizens of NSW, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and the ACT get to enjoy an extra hour of sunshine after clocking off, Queensland remains the eastern seaboard’s outlier.

Daylight saving is an annual talking point on the Gold Coast, with Mayor Tom Tate on Wednesday reiterating calls for it to be introduced in Queensland’s south-east corner.

Tate suggested drawing a new time zone boundary north of Noosa – cheekily acknowledging the lack of support elsewhere from cows and the wider dairy industry.

But for businesses in the NSW border town of Tweed Heads, as well as Coolangatta on the Queensland side, the issue is no joke.

Ellen Clark, a cosmetic nurse, recently opened a business in Tweed Heads and is bracing for late arrivals by her clientele, most of whom are in Queensland.

“It’s going to be interesting trying to navigate that,” she said.

Previously, Clark commuted to Brisbane for work from Tweed Heads, where her partner is based, but decided to set up shop locally after the birth of her first child.

“I used to have to stay on Queensland time while my partner would operate on NSW time,” she said.

“It kind of came to my attention yesterday and I was like, ‘Oh my God, we’re back here again’.”

Sean McMillan, who is new to Tweed Heads, has just set up a barber shop on Bay Street.

“All my systems go off bookings, so I’m trying to do some research, and I’m changing my hours a little bit to catch people on both sides of the border,” he said.

“I’m sure there’ll be people coming in an hour early or an hour late for bookings ... It’s just one of those puzzles to work out.”

Queensland Premier David Crisafulli was not keen to buy into Tate’s suggestion when asked about the issue in Mackay on Thursday.

“I’ve lived at both ends of the state, and I’m here for uniting Queensland, not dividing it,” he said.

Queensland trialled daylight saving between 1989 and 1992 before it was comprehensively rejected in a state referendum.

AAP

Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.