Putting the clock forward takes on a new meaning for council workers charged with fast forwarding Launceston’s Post Office town clock.
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Clocks will go forward at 2am on Sunday as part of daylight saving.
About 11pm on Saturday night, City of Launceston Council technician Duan Bye will be one of two people to climb several levels of narrow stairs to reach the clock’s grandfather system.
Mr Bye will carefully climb in behind the drums, pulleys and levers that operate clock to begin the process of fast forwarding it.
“We will stop the bell so it won’t ring at midnight,” he said.
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Mr Bye joked that anyone out on the town on Saturday night might see time fly.
Winding the clock forward requires the person behind the system to spread two arm levers near where the pendulum attaches, while the other person controls the speed of the mechanism that controls the clock’s time arrows.
The Gillett and Johnston clock was built in England in 1909 and it remains completely mechanical.
Mr Bye said the clock was the same brand of mechanism and almost the same size as the one in Big Ben, with the main difference being the size of the bell.
