Daylight saving

I HAVE resisted weighing in to the daylight saving debate, but wish to add my bit to Jon Ferguson’s letter.

My sister lived in Orange for some years, and said that people west of the Great Divide in New South Wales do not like daylight saving either.

Prior to that, my sister lived in Mt Isa, and was there with two young children when the daylight-saving trial was carried out in Queensland. She said it was a very bad experience.

For a start, Mt Isa is so far west, it could easily take South Australian time, where the sun rises half an hour later than the eastern states.

With young children, they were going to bed late, then having to be up early in darkness, in order to get ready for the next day.

In Queensland, particularly in western districts, it is really too hot to eat or sleep, before darkness falls. My sister says, as Jon Ferguson does: “Just ask the teachers,” especially where children have a long bus journey to get to school.

Now here is what the lifestyle junkies in Sydney and Melbourne and on the Gold and Sunshine Coasts seem to be unable to comprehend: There is no twilight in Queensland.

It is hot, then it is dark. The heat is extreme, the darkness sudden and all-enveloping.

I have lived in England, and have enjoyed the long twilights with mild temperatures, and going for walks after dinner, across fields, to a pub for a drink, and then walking home, all in daylight: a relaxed and enjoyable lifestyle, in keeping with the climate and the latitude.

This cannot be achieved in Queensland. — J WILSON, Wyreema