Australia uses three main time zones: Australian Western Standard Time (AWST; ), Australian Central Standard Time (ACST; ), and Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST; ). Time is regulated by the individual state governments, some of which observe daylight saving time (DST). Australia's external territories observe different time zones.

Standard time was introduced in the 1890s when all of the Australian colonies adopted it. Before the switch to standard time zones, each local city or town was free to determine its local time, called local mean time. Now, Western Australia uses Western Standard Time; South Australia and the Northern Territory use Central Standard Time; while New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania, Victoria, and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) use Eastern Standard Time.

Daylight saving time is used in South Australia, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, and the ACT. It is not currently used in Western Australia, Queensland or the Northern Territory.

The standardization of time in Australia began in 1892, when surveyors from the six colonies in Australia met in Melbourne for the Intercolonial Conference of Surveyors. The delegates accepted the recommendation of the 1884 International Meridian Conference to adopt Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) as the basis for standard time.

The colonies enacted time zone legislation, which took effect in February 1895. The clocks were set ahead of GMT by eight hours in Western Australia; by nine hours in South Australia (and the Northern Territory, which it governed); and by 10 hours in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and Tasmania. The three time zones became known as "Eastern Standard Time", "Central Standard Time", and "Western Standard Time". Broken Hill in the far west of New South Wales also adopted Central Standard Time due to it being connected by rail to Adelaide but not Sydney at the time.

Answer the following questions:
1. When was standard time introduced?
2. What colonies adopted it then?
3. Before the switch, could each city decide what its own time was?
4. What was the name for that time?
5. Will futuristic time travelers visiting Australia still use this time?
6. Is Daylight saving time used in New South Wales?
7. What about Victoria?
8. What's a place it's not currently used in?
9. And another?
10. When did the Aussies start standardizing their time?
11. How many colonies are in Australia?
12. Where'd they all get together?
13. What'd they call their conference?
14. Whose recommendation did they decide to adopt?
15. What was the time the recommendation put forth?
16. When did the legislation the colonies enacted take effect?
17. How many hours did they set their clocks ahead in Western Australia?
18. What about in Tasmania?
19. Is Broken Hill connected to Adelaide by train?
20. Is it further to the west or to the east?

Numbered answers:
1. in the 1890s
2. Australian
3. yes
4. local mean time
5. unknown
6. yes
7. yes
8. Western Australia
9. Queensland
10. 1892
11. six
12. Melbourne
13. the Intercolonial Conference of Surveyors
14. the 1884 International Meridian Conference
15. yes
16. February of 1895
17. eight hours
18. 10 hours
19. yes
20. the west