Australia/Darwin time zone
10:25PMACST
ACSTUTC+9:30+14 h 30 min vs New York (you)
No transitions: Australia/Darwin stays on ACST (UTC+9:30).
About Australia/Darwin
Australia/Darwin is the IANA time zone for Northern Territory in Australia. It currently keeps Australian Central Standard Time (ACST, UTC+9:30) all year.
Its principal location is Darwin at 12.47° S, 130.83° E.
Abbreviations in use: ACST. Offset page: UTC+9:30.
Rule for future years (POSIX TZ string)
ACST-9:30
The standard time is called ACST and is UTC+9:30. POSIX writes the offset with the opposite sign (west of Greenwich is positive), which is why the string says "-9:30". There is no daylight saving rule: the zone stays on this offset for every year after the end of its explicit transitions. Software that has no full tzdata copy, such as many embedded devices, can use this string directly as the TZ environment variable.
History of Australia/Darwin since 1970
The record starts with local mean time (UTC+8:43), which ended on January 31, 1895. The first daylight saving time in the record is in 1916.
| Years | Clocks | Abbreviations |
|---|---|---|
| 1970 onward | UTC+9:30 all year | ACST |
Before 1970
10 offset changes before 1970 in the record:
- Thursday, January 31, 1895: UTC+8:43 → UTC+9 (ACST)
- Monday, May 1, 1899: UTC+9 → UTC+9:30 (ACST)
- Monday, January 1, 1917: UTC+9:30 → UTC+10:30 (ACDT), daylight saving time
- Sunday, March 25, 1917: UTC+10:30 → UTC+9:30 (ACST)
- Thursday, January 1, 1942: UTC+9:30 → UTC+10:30 (ACDT), daylight saving time
- Sunday, March 29, 1942: UTC+10:30 → UTC+9:30 (ACST)
- Sunday, September 27, 1942: UTC+9:30 → UTC+10:30 (ACDT), daylight saving time
- Sunday, March 28, 1943: UTC+10:30 → UTC+9:30 (ACST)
- Sunday, October 3, 1943: UTC+9:30 → UTC+10:30 (ACDT), daylight saving time
- Sunday, March 26, 1944: UTC+10:30 → UTC+9:30 (ACST)
tzdata commits to accuracy from 1970 for every zone (zone1970.tab); earlier entries are historical research and may be incomplete.
Aliases and zones with the same clock
These older or country-specific IDs are links to Australia/Darwin in tzdata. Their pages redirect here: Australia/North.
Places on Australia/Darwin
Convert Darwin time
Using Australia/Darwin in code
Every major platform reads the same IANA ID. Store instants in UTC and convert with the ID at display time; never store a fixed offset for a place that has daylight saving time.
// JavaScript
new Date().toLocaleString('en-US', { timeZone: 'Australia/Darwin' })
# Python 3.9+
from zoneinfo import ZoneInfo
from datetime import datetime
datetime.now(ZoneInfo('Australia/Darwin'))
// Java
java.time.ZonedDateTime.now(java.time.ZoneId.of("Australia/Darwin"))
// Go
loc, _ := time.LoadLocation("Australia/Darwin")
time.Now().In(loc)
-- PostgreSQL
SELECT now() AT TIME ZONE 'Australia/Darwin';
# Shell
TZ='Australia/Darwin' datePlatforms ship their own copy of tzdata and update it on their own schedule. After a rule change, outputs can differ until the platform updates; this page uses tzdata 2026f.