In a remote region of the n Outback there are five tiny towns that exist outside of time as we know it.
The 70 people who call these communities home live in their own secret timezone but nobody really knows why.
has three official time zones: Eastern Standard Time (AEST) on the east coast and Tasmania; Central Standard Time in South and the NT, which is 30 minutes behind AEST; and Western Standard Time, two hours behind AEST.
But there is also the unofficial and little-known Central Western Time (CWT) – one hour and 15 minutes behind AEST – which is used in just five towns on the Eyre Highway in western SA and eastern WA.
If you’re confused, don’t worry, it sometimes baffles locals who live along the 285km stretch of the Nullarbor Plain too – and that’s without considering daylight saving.
‘You quite often get invited to community events and turn up three-quarters of an hour late, which I’ve done many, many times,’ Sergeant Dale Grice of the Eucla Police told Daily Mail .
Three clocks (pictured) in the Border Village Roadhouse show the time in South and Western , as well as the local time
Husband and wife Jason and Zoe Robinson (pictured), who run the Border Village Roadhouse, are used to the confusion caused by the unique time zone – but their customers are not
Eucla, along with Cocklebiddy, Madura and Mundrabilla in WA and Border Village in SA are the five roadhouse locations that use the unnoficial CWT.
The total population of the area is about 70 people, not counting those staying overnight at the roadhouses, with Eucla’s 37 residents making it the biggest of the very small towns.
Because of its location, Eucla was the perfect spot for a telegraph station in 1877, connecting ‘s west coast to the east.
The unique time zone’s origin is not certain, but it may have started to avoid confusion at the telegraph station, as it is located on the border betwee Western and South , which have different time zones
South ‘s time zone has been based on the half hour since 1899, so the CWT zone between SA and WA is based on the quarter hour.
The telegraph is long gone, but Central Western Time is still used, even if it’s not officially recognised and your smart phone will not automatically update to it if you’re in the area.
The Ticket To Know YouTube channel said it was ‘very practical’ for locals to have an extra time zone between Western and South .
‘Because Eucla is more than 1,000km east of Perth, during summer, when the sun rises at 5am in Perth, it would be rising earlier than 4.30am in Eucla if they shared the same time zone,’ the video maker said.
‘With Central Western Time, that difference can be normalised, so the people of the Nullarbor get more daylight during their local working hours.’
CWT allows the roadhouses along the Eyre Highway to operate as its own community with its own time zone.
‘Without CWT, the roadhouse and staff of Border Village, just 12km down the highway from Eucla and over the South n border, would be one and a half hours ahead from the rest of the roadhouses on this stretch of the Nullarbor.
‘Border time allows these roadhouses to share a time zone, regardless of what time their parent states declare it to be.’
Eucla, along with Cocklebiddy, Madura and Mundrabilla in Western and Border Village in South are the five roadhouse locations that use Central Western Time (map pictured)
But there are cracks within that uniform time as the police have to operate on Western n time because their systems are linked to Perth, 1,425km away.
That wasn’t aIways the case, though.
‘I was here 20 years ago as well, when the police station did work on Central Western time, and that made things a lot simpler,’ Sgt Brice said.
‘But obviously now everything is a lot more automated and we’re operating more digitally, and so we have to work in with Perth because all of our infrastructure is based on WA time.’
For the veteran police officer, this can lead to mix-ups in his day-to-day life.
‘I quite often turn up to my medical appointments late because they operate on Central Western Time,’ he said.
‘So that confusion does seep in quite a bit within the community.’
Husband and wife Jason, 54, and Zoe Robinson, 47, who run the Border Village Roadhouse are used to that confusion, though for them it mostly comes from tourists passing though who have just discovered ‘s secret time zone.
The couple have worked in the area for four years, having previously run another roadhouse.
For Mr Robinson, CWT is ‘incredible, it’s so unique. Every second person that walks into the shop is wanting to know what time it is.
‘So hence why we’ve got the three clocks up on the wall just to help them adjust their clocks and everything else,’ he said.
Daylight saving in the n summer further muddies the waters, with South ns putting their clocks forward by an hour – except in Border Village which doesn’t observe daylight saving.
‘It puts us an hour and three quarters instead of just a quarter of an hour difference (with the rest of SA),’ Mr Robinson said.
‘So we have people showing up here if they’ve left their accommodation (elsewhere in SA) at 10am, for instance, and they think it’s 1pm and they can check in.
‘But we have to tell them that it’s only 11.15am and the other guests have just checked out so their room won’t be ready for another couple of hours.’
He doesn’t mind the inevitable questions and likes explaining the history of the time zone.
‘I’m only too happy to have a chat about it because it’s pretty unique and it sets us apart in a little bit of a way, I suppose,’ he said.
Mr Robinson also mentions the telegraph line as being the source of CWT.
The police in Eucla (pictured) operate on WA time, but the people they are policing operate on Western Central Time
The tiny hamlet of Eucla in Western is pictured from the air by a drone
‘The time zone was created as a result of a bit of confusion when the old Eucla telegraph station was operational,’ he said.
‘The two operators, the WA and South telegraph operators, were sitting opposite each other and yet one was on an hour and a half difference to the other one.
‘So they put an agreement in place to split the time difference from each capital city,’ he said.
Whatever the truth behind why Central Western Time was created, it is a fascinating and enduring piece of n history.