Daylight Savings was first proposed in 1907 by William Willett, a British builder and Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. Willett observed during the summer months the sun rose well before people arose from their bed and set well before most people went to be in the evening.
He proposed to transer some of the wasted daylight hours in the morning to the evening period with the proposed benefits of addition time for recreation, reduced crime and energy savings due to the reduced need for artifical light.
The scheme was ridiculed and met with considerable opposition, particulary from farming interests, and attempts to introduce it were defeated until WW1.
Now the only major inductrialised country in the world not to have introduced Daylight Savings is Japan.
Daylight Savings was first introduced in Australia during WW1 under Commonwealth legislation which, due to wartime emergency, was binding on all the States.
Today, QLD, WA and the NT are the only States in Australia not to adopt Daylight Savings.
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