Time to wind back clock on daylight savings? Europe says so

It's the bane of many country people's lives  who are forced to care for animals until the sun goes down and those who have to send kids off to school in the dark.

It upsets not just alarm clocks, but body clocks, some blaming it for increased incidence of depression and diabetes. Circadian rhythms miss a beat, the arms are out of whack. And it goes on and on and on from early October until the first Sunday in April.

It was lengthened for tourists visiting the Sydney Olympics in 2000 and someone never heard the alarm bell to pull it back.

In Europe they've voted to ban it by 2021 - it's called Cloxit, rather than Brexit. Well that's their priority as they invented it way back as a coal saving measure in World War One. The Germans clocked on to it first, and now they've voted en masse (about 4 million in a survey) to say auf wiedersehen to it, but for good.

But while Australian city dwellers rejoice in extended daylight hours so they can party and don't have to turn the light on to order their Uber eats, most country people think daylight savings' time is up.

It's only observed in NSW, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, and the ACT. That means residents in Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia lead a normal time on earth.

Animals don't run by the clock, but the sun, as every farmer knows who has to have a late tea for months on end because they are out in the paddock forever.

So if you live in Moree and drive to Goondiwindi, Queensland, it takes two hours to get there and no time to get back in summer, well actually mid-spring to mid-autumn.

Just tell Moree's mayor Katrina Humphries how much you like daylight savings and you might get clocked.

Not only is she sick of how long it goes on for, but it costs her money running her fish and chips shop in Moree. She has to stay open later, and that's an extra cost she never thought she'd tick over on her wages bill. She wishes daylight savings would swim off into the deep briny blue.

"I hate it," she says." "If the Europeans are banning it, well that's music to my ears. It costs me money, I'd say $300 more in wages a week because I have to stay open later. I mean they just have to shorten it, going all the way to April is way too late. Farmers work by the sun, not the clock. Chooks don't go to bed because the clock says 7, so people are out doing jobs until 7 or 8 at night. It's time to wind it back."

One punter from Albury recently wrote a letter saying daylight savings was exacerbating the drought.

"I believe this one extra hour is evaporating all the moisture out of everything," he wrote.

Any way, time appears to be ticking on daylight savings, but there's one thing for certain - it ends this weekend and it's time to wind your clocks back one hour this Sunday April 7 at 3am. (as the Europeans do the opposite for the second last time). Sleep in, enjoy the extra hour you lost way back on October 6, you'll get six months respite (approx time).