Having long been irked by the fact that the abbreviation for Brisbane is EST, as opposed to AEST, I read through the time zone data file and found that the reason for this was a discussion back in 2001. I'm not sure if this existed then, but there is a federal government web page that lists the time zones and their abbreviations. http://australia.gov.au/about-australia/our-country/time ================================================================================ Time zones With a land mass close to 7.7 million square kilometres, Australia is the world’s sixth largest country and is divided into three separate time zones. Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST) Covers the eastern states of Queensland, New South Wales (with the exception of the town of Broken Hill), Victoria, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory. AEST is equal to Coordinated Universal Time plus 10 hours (UTC +10). Australian Central Standard Time (ACST) Covers the state of South Australia, the town of Broken Hill in western New South Wales and the Northern Territory. ACST is equal to Coordinated Universal Time plus 9 ½ hours (UTC +9 ½). Australian Western Standard Time (AWST) Covers Western Australia. AWST is equal to Coordinated Universal Time plus 8 hours (UTC +8). Daylight saving Daylight Saving Time (DST) is the practice of advancing clocks one hour during the warmer months of the year. In Australia, Daylight saving is observed in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, and the Australian Capital Territory. Daylight Saving Time begins at 2am (AEST) on the first Sunday in October and ends at 2am (AEST) (which is 3am Australian Eastern Daylight Time) on the first Sunday in April. Where Daylight saving is observed: NSW, ACT,Vic and Tas move from AEST to Australian Eastern Daylight Time (AEDT), and clocks are advanced to UTC +11. SA and the NSW town of Broken Hill move from ACST to Australian Central Daylight Time (ACDT), and clocks are advanced to UTC +10 ½. Daylight saving is not observed in Queensland, the Northern Territory or Western Australia. ================================================================================ I believe that the abbreviations used on the federal government website should be used. Shaun Bouckaert