I'm forwarding this message from Joachim Wieland, who is not on the time zone mailing list. Those of you who are on the list, please direct replies appropriately. --ado ________________________________________ From: joachim.wieland@googlemail.com [joachim.wieland@googlemail.com] On Behalf Of Joachim Wieland [joe@mcknight.de] Sent: Sunday, August 01, 2010 12:55 PM To: tz@lecserver.nci.nih.gov Subject: Australian timezone abbreviation EST Hi there, I am a bit confused by the definition of some Australian timezones in the database, maybe someone could shed some light here... When I look at Melbourne for example, I see: [...] Rule AV 2008 max - Apr Sun>=1 2:00s 0 - Rule AV 2008 max - Oct Sun>=1 2:00s 1:00 - # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] Zone Australia/Melbourne 9:39:52 - LMT 1895 Feb 10:00 Aus EST 1971 10:00 AV EST It looks like there is only one valid timezone abbreviation, which is EST! EST seems to change its offset whenever Australia/Melbourne changes from dst or back? Isn't that more than confusing? How would one know what time "4:15pm EST" is?! Or am I only misreading this? http://www.travelmath.com/time-zone/Australia/Melbourne tells me: "The GMT offset is currently UTC/GMT +10 hours (EST). It will change [...]. The new GMT offset will be UTC/GMT +11 hours (EST)." Thanks for your help, Joachim PS: I am not subscribed to the list, it would be nice if you could copy me in your replies. Thanks.