Southern Hemisphere Clock Changes in 2027: Who Moves and Who Doesn't

Only 14 of the 117 southern-hemisphere zone names change their clocks in 2027. New Zealand goes back on 4 April and forward on 26 September, Sydney on 4 April and 3 October, and Santiago at midnight on 4 April and 5 September.

By World Date and Time editorial team · Published 5 November 2026

The clock changes people hear about happen in the north. In the southern hemisphere the pattern runs the other way: clocks go back in April and forward in September or October, and most of the south never moves them at all. Of the 117 zone names in the tz database whose reference place lies south of the equator, only 14 change their clocks in 2027. The other 103 hold one offset all year. This guide counts which are which, using tzdata 2026f, and checks the dates against the governments that set them. The pages that list each country’s dates are Australia in 2027, New Zealand in 2027 and Chile in 2027.

The 14 zones that move in 2027

New Zealand ends daylight saving at 3am on Sunday 4 April 2027 and starts it again at 2am on Sunday 26 September 2027 (New Zealand Government). New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory end it at 3am on Sunday 4 April and restart on the first Sunday in October, which is 3 October (NSW Government). South Australia and Broken Hill follow the same days half an hour behind. Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia do not observe it (NSW Communities and Justice). The table lists all fourteen zone names that move, with the clock times read from tzdata, so you can see the odd ones out.

Method: Zone names from zone.tab, changes and offsets read from tzdata 2026f for 2027. Times are the local clock reading either side of the move. Days advanced counts local noons in 2027 on which the zone sits at its higher offset; the year has 365.

Four of the fourteen are Sydney’s rule under different names (Macquarie, Hobart, Melbourne, Sydney). Adelaide and Broken Hill share another, half an hour behind, and Norfolk Island (Pacific/Norfolk) moves on the same dates from UTC+11 to UTC+12. Two more are New Zealand’s: Auckland and McMurdo Station in Antarctica, which keeps New Zealand time. Sydney spends 183 of 365 days on daylight time and Auckland 190. The longest stretch is not in either. Santiago is advanced for 211 days, because the Chilean summer runs from September to April, and Troll station is advanced for 217.

Chile moves at midnight, and two regions do not move

Continental Chile is the one place on the list that changes at midnight local time. Decreto 98, published on 2 July 2026, puts continental Chile an hour forward from 24:00 on the first Saturday of September to 24:00 on the first Saturday of April, and the pattern repeats for the following two years (Decreto 98 on Ley Chile). For 2027 that means clocks go back at the end of Saturday 3 April, so at midnight, 00:00 on Sunday 4 April becomes 23:00 on Saturday: the last hour of Saturday happens twice. They go forward at the end of Saturday 4 September, 00:00 becoming 01:00. Easter Island moves at the same instants but sits two hours behind, so its clocks read 22:00 to 21:00 on Saturday 3 April and 22:00 to 23:00 on Saturday 4 September.

The decree also keeps the regions of Aysén and Magallanes on UTC-3 permanently, so their clocks do not move. In the tz database that is America/Coyhaique and America/Punta_Arenas, whose last clock move was on 8 September 2024. The Chile 2027 page has the dates for the rest of the country, and the tz database file southamerica carries the zone rules.

Three oddities: Troll, Lord Howe and Chatham

Troll station in Queen Maud Land is the largest mover in the southern hemisphere: its clock jumps 2 hours, from UTC+0 to UTC+2. In tzdata the rule is to move at 01:00 UTC on the last Sunday of March and back at 01:00 UTC on the last Sunday of October, which are 28 March and 31 October 2027, the same instants as the clock changes in the UK and Europe (tz database file antarctica). The file’s own comments say the real station may use UTC+1 for some weeks at the edges, and that it approximates with UTC and UTC+2 only. Troll’s clock therefore goes forward in March and back in October, on the northern calendar, while the other thirteen zones do the opposite. The Troll time zone page shows the current offset.

Lord Howe Island, off the New South Wales coast, changes by half an hour, not one: UTC+10:30 in winter and UTC+11 in summer, on Sydney’s dates (NSW Communities and Justice). In 2027 its clock goes from 02:00 back to 01:30 on Sunday 4 April and from 02:00 to 02:30 on 3 October. Its summer time is therefore the same as Sydney’s UTC+11 while its standard time is half an hour ahead of Sydney’s. Open the Lord Howe time zone page to see it.

The Chatham Islands sit 45 minutes ahead of New Zealand standard time under the Time Act 1974 (Time Act 1974 summary), so they run on UTC+12:45 in winter and UTC+13:45 in summer. They change on New Zealand’s days but at 03:45 and 02:45 on the island clock, a quarter of an hour apart from the mainland. From late September to early April it holds UTC+13:45, the highest offset of any of the 117 zone names in 2027. The Chatham time zone page has the zone.

The 103 that stay put, and the 22 that stopped

A southern zone is much more likely to hold one clock all year than to change it. The 103 that do not move in 2027 spread over 27 distinct offsets, and the busiest one, UTC-3, holds 27 zone names. Only 4 offsets are not a whole hour: UTC-9:30 (Pacific/Marquesas); UTC+6:30 (Indian/Cocos); UTC+8:45 (Australia/Eucla); UTC+9:30 (Australia/Darwin).

Method: Offsets read from tzdata 2026f at noon on 1 July 2027, for the zone names that do not change clocks in 2027.

Many of those zones used to change. The next table lists the steady zones whose last clock change fell in 2010 to 2025, grouped by country, with the date of that last change in UTC. 22 of the 103 fall in it. Brazil’s 7 zone names last moved on 17 February 2019, the end of its final daylight saving period, and Paraguay’s last change was on 6 October 2024 (tz database file southamerica). Samoa and Fiji have not moved their clocks since 2021 (tz database file australasia). The country list comes from zone.tab.

Method: For each of the 103 zone names with no change in 2027, tzdata 2026f was read year by year from 2025 back to 2010, and the last change found is shown. Where a country has several zones the latest date is shown. Brazil has zones that last moved before 2010 and are not listed.

London’s gap to Sydney, Auckland and Santiago

Because the north and south change on different weekends, the time difference to London is never constant. London moves on 28 March and 31 October 2027 (GOV.UK). Sydney, Auckland and Santiago all go back on Sunday 4 April, which leaves a week, 28 March to 3 April, when London is on summer time and the three cities are still advanced. The next table counts every day of 2027. The January gap holds for 148 days in each case, 1 January to 27 March and 31 October to 31 December. The days when the gap is an hour off its mid-year value number 35 for Sydney, 42 for Auckland and 63 for Santiago, and Santiago’s stretch from 5 September to 30 October, 56 days, is the longest single one. The London and Sydney difference page and the London and Santiago page show today’s gap.

Method: Each of the 365 days of 2027 was read at 12:00 UTC from tzdata 2026f, the offset of the city minus the offset of Europe/London. Santiago behind London is shown as hours behind.

Calling Sydney “nine hours ahead of London” is true for 182 days and wrong for the other 183; Auckland’s 11-hour gap lasts 175 days and Santiago’s 5-hour gap 154. If you set a repeating call, the clock widgets show each city’s own time so the shift does not have to be remembered, and the dates above are the ones to check.

All the offsets and dates above are read from tzdata 2026f, and a government can still change a rule. Chile’s Decreto 98 was published only on 2 July 2026, and the tz database follows such decrees once they are public. Check the linked country pages before you plan around a date.