How public holidays are decided in Australia

Two layers: national and state

Australian public holidays come from two places. The Fair Work Act 2009 lists eight days that are public holidays everywhere for the purposes of national workplace law: New Year's Day, Australia Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Anzac Day, the King's Birthday, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. It then says that any other day declared a public holiday under a state or territory law is also a public holiday for workers in that state.

That second sentence is why the calendar looks so different from Brisbane to Hobart. The Commonwealth sets the floor; each state and territory adds its own days, sets the dates of the moveable ones and decides what happens when a fixed date lands on a weekend.

The state laws

Each jurisdiction has its own act, and the dates on this site are checked against what those acts and the notices made under them say:

Some holidays are written directly into the act with a rule ("the second Monday in June"). Others are declared each year by the responsible minister in a notice published in the government gazette, which is why you will see the word gazetted on this site. Grand Final Friday in Victoria, WA's King's Birthday and Queensland's council show holidays are all gazetted annually rather than fixed by formula.

Why the dates differ

Most of the differences are historical accidents that nobody has had reason to fix. Labour Day is in March in Victoria and October in NSW because each colony marked its own eight-hour-day anniversary. Queensland moved its King's Birthday to October in 2016 to space its holidays out. Western Australia has a Foundation Day in June, so it pushes the King's Birthday to September. Tasmania splits its regional days between north and south. None of these is coordinated nationally, and there is no body with the power to align them.

The one area where states do tend to move together is the substitution of weekend holidays: every jurisdiction now provides a weekday off when Christmas, Boxing Day or New Year's Day falls on a weekend, though the exact mechanics still differ. The substitute and additional days guide sets those out.

One-off and additional holidays

Governments can declare a public holiday for a single occasion. The clearest recent example is the National Day of Mourning for Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday 22 September 2022, declared by the Commonwealth and then adopted by every state. States have also declared one-off days for major sporting wins and royal visits, and Victoria added a holiday in 2015 (Grand Final Friday) that has become permanent. Part-day holidays, covering only the evening of Christmas Eve or New Year's Eve in some states, are a newer variation on the same power.

One-off declarations usually come with only a few weeks' notice. This site adds them to the rules as soon as they are gazetted and keeps them in past years so historical dates stay accurate.

Local holidays

Below the state layer there is a local one. Queensland councils each have a show holiday, Tasmania's show and cup days apply by municipality, and NSW and Victorian councils can request a local public holiday or half-day for their show or race meeting. These apply only to workplaces in the declared area. This site lists the major ones and marks them as regional; the regional show holidays guide explains how to check whether one applies to you.