Public holidays in Australia


Public holidays in Australia are the holidays recognised in law in Australia. Although they are declared on a state and territory basis, they comprise a mixture of nationally celebrated days and holidays exclusive to the individual jurisdictions.
Public holidays function as non-working days, with workers generally receiving full paid leave independently of annual leave. Those working on public holidays receive additional penalty rates of pay. Where they fall on a weekend, public holidays are generally declared in lieu for the following Monday.
Statutory holidays in Australia are based on varying religious, cultural and civic observations. Christian celebrations, namely Christmas and Easter, are some of the most significant ones observed. A Labour Day is observed in each state and territory, although it is varied in date. There are two significant national days, Australia Day and Anzac Day, which are nationwide public holidays.
When a public holiday occurs on a Friday or Monday, the three-day period is colloquially known as a "long weekend".

Nature of public holidays

Traditionally, Australians in employment have had the right to take a public holiday off work with regular pay. In recent years this tradition has changed somewhat. For example, businesses that normally open on a public holiday may request employees to work on that day. Employers can deny employees a holiday only on reasonable business grounds.
From 2006, WorkChoices eliminated the entitlement to penalty rates in many workplaces; however since the implementation of the Fair Work Act 2009 and the modern awards in 2010, most public-holiday penalty rates have increased dramatically. employees generally receive pay at a penalty rate—usually 2.5 times the base rate of pay—when they work on a public holiday.
Besides designating days as public holidays, Australian authorities also designate some of these days as restricted trading days.
Public holidays are determined by a combination of:
  • statutes, with specific gazetting of public holidays
  • industrial awards and agreements
If a standard public holiday falls on a weekend, a substitute public holiday will sometimes be observed on the first non-weekend day after the weekend, whether by virtue of the public holiday legislation or by ad hoc proclamation. Workers required to work on a public holiday or substituted public holiday will usually be entitled to remuneration at a holiday penalty rate.
All states have their own public holidays in addition to national public holidays, and in some states certain public holidays, such as Melbourne Cup Day, are in force in only part of a state.
Alcohol licences in several states prevent sale of alcohol on certain public holidays, such as Good Friday.

Public holidays

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Substitute holidays for holidays falling on a weekend

When a public holiday falls on a weekend, the following work day may be considered a public holiday depending on the state/territory and the holiday in question.
Holidays that always fall on a particular day of the week are not listed in this table. Prior to 2008, Victorian law only specified substitute holidays for New Year and Boxing Day, and only if they fell on a Sunday. From 2008, Victorian law specifies the substitute holidays in the table above.
Since Easter Monday can occur as late as 26 April it is possible for the Easter Monday holiday to coincide with Anzac Day, as occurred in 2011. State Acts do not give a provision to separate the days when this occurs, so no additional public holiday is given by law. However an extra day is usually proclaimed by the minister, so as to have a steady number of public holidays each year. In the year 2038, Anzac Day will coincide with Easter Sunday.

Australia Day

Nationally, Australia Day was originally celebrated on 30 July 1915.
Recorded celebrations of the 26 January date back to 1808 in Australia, and in 1818, Governor Lachlan Macquarie held the first official celebration of Australia Day. 26 January was chosen because it is the day of the establishment of the first British settlement at Port Jackson by Captain Arthur Phillip in 1788. It was made a public holiday in New South Wales in 1836, and Victoria adopted the day as a public holiday in 1931. The 26 January commenced to be recognised by all states and territories as Australia Day in 1935 and all States except SA observed it from the 1888 centenary.
Australia Day has been celebrated as a national public holiday on 26 January since 1994.
Since 1960, the winner of the Australian of the Year award is announced by the Prime Minister on the eve of Australia Day.

Labour Day

Labour Day commemorates the achievements of the Australian labour movement. The celebration of Labour Day has its origins in the eight-hour day movement, which advocated eight hours for work, eight hours for recreation, and eight hours for rest. On 21 April 1856 Stonemasons and building workers on building sites around Melbourne, Australia, stopped work and marched from the University of Melbourne to Parliament House to achieve an eight-hour day. Their direct action protest was a success, and they are noted as the first organised workers in the world to achieve an eight-hour day with no loss of pay, which subsequently inspired the celebration of Labour Day and May Day. In Tasmania the public holiday is called Eight Hours Day and in the Northern Territory it is called May Day.
The Labour Day public holiday varies considerably between the various states and territories. It is the first Monday in October in the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales and South Australia. In Western Australia, it is the first Monday in March. In both Victoria and Tasmania, it is the second Monday in March. In the Northern Territory, and in Queensland it is the first Monday in May.

Easter

The days of Easter vary each year depending on the day determined by the Western Christian calendar. Until 1994 Easter Tuesday was a Bank Holiday in Victoria. The day after Good Friday and before Easter Sunday is traditionally known as Holy Saturday. However, the states where that day is a public holiday use different terminology – it is officially gazetted as "Easter Saturday" in the ACT, New South Wales, the Northern Territory and South Australia, as "the day after Good Friday" in Queensland, and as "Saturday before Easter Sunday" in Victoria.

Anzac Day

is a day on which the country remembers those citizens who fell fighting or who served the country in wars. ANZAC Day is commemorated on 25 April every year. The tradition began to remember the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps soldiers who landed at Gallipoli in Turkey during World War I.
Anzac Day commemoration features marches by veterans and by solemn "Dawn Services", a tradition started in Albany, Western Australia on 25 April 1923 and now held at war memorials around the country, accompanied by thoughts of those lost at war to the ceremonial sounds of The Last Post on the bugle. The fourth stanza of Laurence Binyon's poem For the Fallen is often recited.

King's Birthday

In all states and territories except Queensland and Western Australia, the King's Birthday is observed on the second Monday in June. Because Western Australia celebrates Western Australia Day on the first Monday in June, the Governor of Western Australia proclaims the day on which the state will observe the King's Birthday, based on school terms and the Perth Royal Show. There is no firm rule to determine this date before it is proclaimed, though it is typically the last Monday of September or the first Monday of October: in 2011 the King's Birthday holiday in Western Australia was moved from Monday, 3 October 2011 to Friday, 28 October 2011 to coincide with the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, which was held in Perth. In parts of the Pilbara, it is celebrated on a different date from the rest of Western Australia, and it may even be celebrated on different dates in different parts of the Pilbara. In Queensland, it is celebrated on the 1st Monday in October.
The day has been celebrated since 1788, when Governor Arthur Phillip declared a holiday to mark the birthday of King George III. Until 1936 it was held on the actual birthday of the Monarch, but after the death of King George V, it was decided to keep the date at mid-year.
On that day the "King's Birthday honours list" is released naming new members of the Order of Australia and other Australian honours. This occurs on the date observed in the Eastern States, not the date observed in Western Australia.
The King's Birthday weekend and Empire Day, 24 May, were long the traditional times for public fireworks displays in Australia. Although they still occur, the tradition has recently been overshadowed by larger New Year's Eve fireworks, as the sale of fireworks to the public was banned by the states in the 1980s, and in the ACT as of 24 August 2009. In the Northern Territory fireworks remain available to the public on 1 July for the celebration of Territory Day.

Christmas Day

is observed on 25 December each year to commemorate the birth of Jesus. In Australia, it was introduced with British settlement in 1788 as the cultural norms were transferred to the new colonies.

Boxing Day

is on the day after Christmas, i.e. 26 December each year, except in South Australia where it is replaced by Proclamation Day.
Boxing Day is noted for the start of the post-Christmas sale season. The day has also become a significant sporting day. Melbourne hosts the Boxing Day Test match; the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race also starts on this day.

Other holidays

  • Every public holiday and Sunday is a bank holiday in South Australia.
  • Proclamation Day is in December in South Australia only.
  • Canberra Day is held on the 2nd Monday in March in the ACT. Prior to 2008, this holiday was celebrated on the 3rd Monday of March.
  • Melbourne Cup Day is held on the first Tuesday of November—the day of the Melbourne Cup. It was originally observed only in the Melbourne metropolitan area. From 2007 to 2009 in ACT, Melbourne Cup day was also a holiday called "Family and Community Day". The holiday continued from 2010 to 2017 but no longer coincided with Melbourne Cup day. In Victoria, the Public Holidays Act 1993 was amended from 24 September 2008 and made the Melbourne Cup Day holiday applicable in all parts of the state. It also made the holiday applicable to employees covered by federal awards.
  • Recreation Day is the first Monday of November, and celebrated in Northern Tasmania where Regatta Day is not a holiday.
  • Regatta Day is the second Monday in February, and is celebrated in Southern Tasmania. Previously it was held on the second Tuesday in February.
  • Geelong Cup Day is held on the fourth Wednesday of October in the city of Geelong, Victoria
  • Queensland Day is celebrated on 6 June each year, but not with a public holiday.
  • Adelaide Cup Day is held on the second Monday in March in South Australia
  • Western Australia Day in Western Australia on the first Monday in June.
  • Picnic Day in the Northern Territory in August, and also May Day
  • Tasmania has Easter Tuesday as a bank holiday.
  • New South Wales has the first Monday in August as a bank holiday.
  • Many cities and towns observe local public holidays for their local Agricultural Show. For example:
  • *Darwin Show Day in Darwin area in late July
  • *Royal Queensland Show Day in Brisbane area in August
  • *Gold Coast Show in Gold Coast area in October
  • *Territory Day celebrated in the Northern Territory on 1 July while not a designated public holiday, it remains the only Australian public celebration where the public may purchase fireworks for home detonation
  • "National Day of Mourning for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II" was a "one off" national public holiday declared by the Prime Minister for 22 September 2022 to allow people to pay their respects for the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-reigning Australian monarch.