In any region, it is important to establish standards for time, position and distances. It is not possible to function economically or personally without such standards.
For example, there must an agreed unit of time and a unit of distance. These are fixed according to the international standards:
Standardisation of a time zone.
For time, we base our measurements on the difference in longitude between the 0º for the Prime Meridian (which replaced Greenwich Mean Time but is very much the same) and the longitude of any place on Earth. That difference is then converted into a fraction of a day.
For example, Sydney is approximately on the 152º E longitude and Melbourne is approximately on the 145º longitude. Round these together and we have approximately 150º. Calculate the fraction of 150º of a circle (with 360º) and multiply by the 24 hours in day. The answer is 10. Hence these two cities are 10 hours ahead of the agreed central location (in England). The calculation and the concepts behind it can be found elsewhere.
In a given locality, all times must be the same. So for example, all times in the States of Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland are the same (except when daylight saving is in operation). That requires people in Warnambool and Mallacoota to have their clocks synchronised.
To achieve that synchronisation in the 1800s, it was of course necessary to use the telegraph circuits. Electricity flows through these circuits so fast that, for every day purposes, the communication is instantaneous.
The Gippsland Times of 31 January 1895 reported on the way this synchronisation was achieved at that time:
Today, on the first stroke of midnight, the time of the 150th meridian becomes the statutory time over the whole of Victoria and all Government clocks are to be advanced twenty minutes. At 9 o'clock a.m. on Friday the correct time as calculated to the Meridian fixed, will be telegraphed from the Melbourne Observatory to every important station in the country and then everything is to go on as usual. The process of altering the standard time is beautifully simple. The consequences may be a little bewildering.
The Act declares a new standard of time to be in force but allows the old standard to be maintained where it is specifically stated. For instance a mortgage deed signed a month ago, in which it is stipulated that release may be obtained at noon Greenwich Mean Time on a certain date, that time may be observed despite the Act and the Observatory clock. Captains, when navigating their ships as usual, still have nothing to do with any other standard but that of Greenwich Mean Time. Trains, telegrams, banks and public houses, however, will be all regulated by the Act.
It is somewhat incomprehensible on first thought why the delegates at recent Postal Conferences should have been so anxious to adopt the American zone system first introduced to their notice by Sir Charles Todd, the South Australian Postmaster General. The reason given is that by the alteration New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria will have one uniform time, while South Australia and West Australia have another. This decidedly simplifies the work of telegraph operators and railway time table companies.
The greatest hardship by the alteration apparently falls upon the publicans. None of them want to open twenty minutes earlier than at present; neither do they want to close earlier. Still, under the present arrangement, those in the extreme west close earlier and those in the extreme east of the colony close later than true time. Cape Howe is on the 150th meridian so Sale people, roughly speaking, will be within ten minutes of the actual time of sunrise and sunset while Portland people, who were about 16 minutes behind sunrise and sunset under Melbourne old time, will now be in a position to take a nobbler at their favourite hotel at midnight by the moon, without dread of the police finding the bar door unlocked.
The fact is, that the present standard time of Victoria is as arbitrary as the zone standard to be enforced on Friday and people will soon get used to the alteration".
Standardisation of position.
There are many situations in which we must know our exact position on Earth. Our houses must be defined by accurate coordinates so that we don't try to usurp some of our neighbours land. A building cannot be constructed beyond a set position. New South Wales cannot extend its boundaries into Queensland, South Australia or Victoria so as to claim a good opal mining area of richer soil for crops.
Hence state boundaries mist be established with reference to specified lines of latitude and longitude. That is difficult of one is standing in the middle of a desert with no reference points nearby.
The technique is to observe the movement of planets or stars relative to other bodies such as the moon at a specified time. Complex? Yes but if there are three observing points separated widely. very precise measurements can be made. Naturally these three points need to be able to communicate with each other as, for example Jupiter pops out from behind the moon - and (guess what) THAT IS WHERE THE TELEGRAPH COMES IN - instant communication.
For examples of these techniques being used, see: