How to fix Google Calendar showing the wrong time zone for events when travelling interstate or overseas in Australia

Calendars & Scheduling KB-458

Summary

This guide helps you troubleshoot and resolve: How to fix Google Calendar showing the wrong time zone for events when travelling interstate or overseas in Australia. Follow the steps below to fix the issue.

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Common Causes

If you travel between Australian states or overseas for work, Google Calendar may continue displaying events in your home time zone rather than the local time at your destination. This can cause missed meetings or confusion about when an event is actually taking place. The good news is that Google Calendar includes built-in settings that let you display a secondary time zone, change your primary time zone, or check whether individual events have their own time zone override.

Understanding how Google Calendar handles time zones

Google Calendar stores every event in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and converts it to whichever time zone you have selected for display. If your calendar is set to Brisbane (AEST, UTC+10) and you fly to Perth for a meeting, the event will still show the Brisbane time unless you change your settings. This is by design, so that people in different locations can agree on a single moment in time.

You have three main options when travelling:

Show a secondary time zone — best for travellers who want to keep their home time visible while seeing local time at the destination.
Change the primary time zone — best for travellers who only need to see events in the local time of where they are.
Check individual event time zones — if a specific event shows the wrong time, it may have been created with a custom time zone override.

Enabling a secondary time zone

Open Google Calendar on the web at calendar.google.com.
Click the Settings gear icon, then choose Settings.
In the left sidebar, click General.
Scroll down to the Time zone section.
Tick Display secondary time zone.
Set your Primary time zone to your usual Australian time zone (for example, (GMT+10:00) Brisbane).
Set your Secondary time zone to the destination (for example, (GMT+08:00) Perth or (GMT+00:00) London).
Optionally add a label such as Perth or London in the Label field so the time zone is easy to identify.
Click Save.

Your calendar view will now show both time zones side by side at the top of the day and week views.

Switching the primary time zone while travelling

Open Google Calendar settings as described above.
Under Time zone, change the Primary time zone dropdown to your destination.
Click Save.

All existing events will now display in the new primary time zone. The actual moment in time they occur does not change, only the displayed clock time.

Checking an individual event's time zone

If only one or two events show the wrong time, the event itself may have a custom time zone set. To check and fix this:

Open the event in Google Calendar.
Click the three-dot menu in the event details.
Look for the Time zone field. If it shows a zone other than your intended one, click it and select the correct zone.
Click Save.

Setting the time zone when creating a new event

When creating a new event, you can specify its time zone:

Click to create a new event or open an existing one.
In the event details, click the Time zone dropdown (visible in more options).
Select the appropriate time zone for the event location.
Save the event.

This is useful for scheduling meetings with people in different states or countries, as it ensures the event displays correctly for all attendees regardless of their own time zone settings.

Troubleshooting

Events still show the wrong time after changing settings

Refresh the page or close and reopen the Google Calendar app.
Check that the event itself was not created with a custom time zone. Open the event, click the three-dot menu, and confirm the time zone field shows your intended zone.
Sign out of your Google account and sign back in.

Mobile app not reflecting the change

Force close the Google Calendar app and reopen it.
Check that your phone's system time zone is correct in Settings > General > Date & Time (iOS) or Settings > System > Date & time (Android).
Update the Google Calendar app from the App Store or Google Play Store.

Secondary time zone label is missing

If you do not see the secondary time zone in your calendar view, confirm that you have scrolled to the day or week view. The secondary time zone is only visible in these layouts, not in the month view.

Shared calendars showing different times

Each person viewing a shared calendar sees events in their own chosen time zone. If a colleague says the meeting is at a different time, confirm both of you have the correct primary time zone selected. The event itself is the same moment for everyone.

Be cautious when changing the primary time zone for calendars that contain recurring events such as weekly meetings. The display time will shift, but the underlying UTC time will not. Always communicate any time changes with attendees before making the switch.

If you continue to experience issues after following these steps, please Open a Ticket and our team will be happy to assist.

Still Having Issues?

Need more help? If the issue persists after trying these steps, please open a support ticket and our team will assist you.

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