The longest day across Australia
Sunrise, sunset and the hours of daylight on 22 December, with first light and last light added: the twilight either side of the sun, when it's light enough to see by outdoors.
| City | Sunrise | Sunset | Daylight | With twilight |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Darwin | 6:20 am | 7:11 pm | 12 h 51 min | 13 h 38 min |
| Cairns | 5:42 am | 6:50 pm | 13 h 8 min | 13 h 56 min |
| Brisbane | 4:51 am | 6:43 pm | 13 h 53 min | 14 h 46 min |
| Perth | 5:08 am | 7:23 pm | 14 h 14 min | 15 h 11 min |
| Sydney | 5:42 am | 8:06 pm | 14 h 25 min | 15 h 23 min |
| Adelaide | 5:59 am | 8:30 pm | 14 h 30 min | 15 h 30 min |
| Canberra | 5:46 am | 8:19 pm | 14 h 32 min | 15 h 32 min |
| Melbourne | 5:56 am | 8:43 pm | 14 h 47 min | 15 h 50 min |
| Hobart | 5:29 am | 8:50 pm | 15 h 21 min | 16 h 31 min |
In Sydney the sun is up from 5:42 am to 8:06 pm, and with first light at 5:13 am and last light at 8:36 pm the usable day is 15 hours 23 minutes.
Why it’s 22 December, not 21
The solstice is a single moment: 20:50 UTC on 21 December 2026, from the US Naval Observatory. Australia is far enough ahead of UTC that it's already the next morning: 4:50 am in Perth, 6:50 am in Brisbane and 7:50 am AEDT in Sydney, all on 22 December. In Europe and the Americas it's still the 21st. Either way the two days differ by a few seconds of daylight, and 22 December comes out longest in every city here.
Darwin to Hobart: north and south
Distance from the equator decides how much the seasons swing. Hobart gets 2 h 29 min more daylight than Darwin on the longest day, but in June it gets 2 h 23 min less. Darwin's day barely changes: 12 h 51 min in December, 11 h 23 min in June.
Hobart's summer day is 6 h 20 min longer than its winter one
Hours from sunrise to sunset on 22 December 2026 and 21 June 2027. Darwin's swing is only 1 h 28 min.
Source: DaySight, calculated from the sun's position for each city.
The earliest sunrise and the latest sunset
The longest day doesn't have the earliest sunrise or the latest sunset. Sunrises start getting later before the solstice, and sunsets keep getting later until early January. In Sydney the earliest sunrise is 6 December at 5:38 am, and the latest sunset is 8 January at 8:11 pm.
| City | Earliest sunrise | Latest sunset |
|---|---|---|
| Darwin | 19 November (6:11 am) | 25 January (7:21 pm) |
| Cairns | 24 November (5:35 am) | 20 January (6:58 pm) |
| Brisbane | 2 December (4:46 am) | 11 January (6:49 pm) |
| Perth | 5 December (5:04 am) | 9 January (7:27 pm) |
| Sydney | 6 December (5:38 am) | 8 January (8:11 pm) |
| Adelaide | 6 December (5:56 am) | 7 January (8:34 pm) |
| Canberra | 6 December (5:43 am) | 7 January (8:23 pm) |
| Melbourne | 8 December (5:52 am) | 5 January (8:46 pm) |
| Hobart | 10 December (5:27 am) | 3 January (8:53 pm) |
When do the days get shorter?
From 23 December, by a second or two at first. By 1 March Hobart is losing 2 min 50 sec a day and Darwin 41 sec. The further south, the faster the light goes, all the way to the shortest day on 21 June.
| City | 1 Jan | 1 Feb | 1 Mar |
|---|---|---|---|
| Darwin | 9 sec | 33 sec | 41 sec |
| Cairns | 13 sec | 46 sec | 57 sec |
| Brisbane | 22 sec | 1 min 20 sec | 1 min 40 sec |
| Perth | 27 sec | 1 min 30 sec | 2 min |
| Sydney | 29 sec | 1 min 40 sec | 2 min 10 sec |
| Adelaide | 31 sec | 1 min 50 sec | 2 min 10 sec |
| Canberra | 31 sec | 1 min 50 sec | 2 min 10 sec |
| Melbourne | 34 sec | 2 min | 2 min 30 sec |
| Hobart | 42 sec | 2 min 20 sec | 2 min 50 sec |
Daylight saving
New South Wales, Victoria, the ACT, Tasmania and South Australia are on daylight saving from Sunday 4 October 2026 to Sunday 4 April 2027. Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory aren't. So on the longest day Brisbane's sun is up at 4:51 am, while Sydney's, with its clocks an hour ahead, rises at 5:42 am.
For the Northern Hemisphere side of the same day, see the shortest day of the year in the US and in the UK.