Substitute and additional public holidays explained
What happens when a public holiday falls on a weekend: which states move the day, which add one, and why it matters for weekend workers.
Observed versus additional
Five Australian public holidays have fixed dates: New Year's Day, Australia Day, Anzac Day, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Every few years each of them falls on a Saturday or Sunday, and each state has a rule for what happens next. There are two basic approaches, and the names matter.
- An observed (or substitute) holiday moves the public holiday to the next weekday. The weekend day becomes an ordinary day. There is one holiday, on the Monday.
- An additional holiday keeps the weekend day as a public holiday and adds a second public holiday on the next weekday. There are two holidays.
For someone who works Monday to Friday the difference is invisible: either way there is a Monday off. For anyone rostered on the weekend it decides whether Saturday or Sunday is paid at public holiday rates. Retail, hospitality, health and emergency workers are the ones who need to know which rule applies.
The rules by state
This table is derived from the same rules that generate every date on this site, and those rules are checked against official government data before each build.
| Holiday | Keep the weekend day and add a weekday | Move to a weekday only | No substitution |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Year's Day | VIC, NSW, QLD, WA, ACT (Sat or Sun). SA, TAS, NT (Sun only) | SA, TAS, NT (Sat) | |
| Australia Day | VIC (Sun only) | All states (Sat); all except VIC (Sun) | |
| Anzac Day | WA (Sat or Sun). ACT (Sat) | QLD, SA, NT, ACT (Sun) | VIC, NSW, TAS. QLD, SA, NT (Sat) |
| Christmas Day | All states and territories | ||
| Boxing Day | VIC, NSW, QLD, WA, ACT (Sat or Sun). SA, TAS, NT (Sun only) | SA, TAS, NT (Sat) |
The "Sun only" pattern in South Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory is the one most people find odd. A Saturday holiday there simply moves to Monday, but a Sunday holiday is kept and a Monday added. The reasoning is that a Saturday is a working day for many people while a Sunday already attracts penalty rates, so the Sunday is left in place as a holiday.
When two holidays collide
Christmas Day and Boxing Day are consecutive, so their additional days have to avoid each other. If Christmas is a Saturday and Boxing Day a Sunday, the additional days are Monday 27 and Tuesday 28 December. If Christmas is a Sunday, Boxing Day is the Monday and stays where it is, and the Christmas additional day skips to the Tuesday. The rules on this site handle that ordering automatically, and the year pages show the result for every state.
Anzac Day and Easter Monday can also land on the same day when Easter is very late; it last happened in 2011. There is no standing rule for that clash. In 2011 most states declared Tuesday 26 April an extra public holiday so that one holiday was not lost inside the other, and a future clash would need a similar one-off declaration.
Substituting by agreement
Separately from the state rules, most modern awards and many enterprise agreements let an employer and an employee agree to substitute a different day for a public holiday. That is a workplace arrangement between the two of you; it does not change the public holiday itself, and if you work the actual holiday without a substitution agreement in place you are entitled to the public holiday rate. The Fair Work Ombudsman's public holidays page has the detail for your award.
How this site shows them
A moved holiday appears in the tables with "(observed)" after its name and an added one with "(additional day)". Both count as public holidays for the long weekend planner. The date lookup shows, for any calendar day, whether it is a public holiday in each state in each year, which is the quickest way to check a specific weekend.
Quick answers
If a public holiday falls on a Saturday, do I get the Monday off?
For Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year's Day and Australia Day, yes in every state. For Anzac Day only WA and the ACT add a Monday after a Saturday.
What is the difference between an observed and an additional public holiday?
An observed holiday moves to the weekday and the weekend day becomes ordinary. An additional holiday keeps the weekend day as a holiday and adds the weekday as well.
More guides
- How public holidays are decided in Australia
Who declares public holidays, why the states differ, how a date gets gazetted, and where one-off holidays come from.
- Part-day public holidays: Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve
Which states declare evening public holidays on 24 and 31 December, what hours they cover, and what they mean for pay.
- Regional show holidays: who gets them and how to check
How show days, cup days and other local public holidays work in Queensland, the NT, Tasmania and elsewhere, and how to tell whether yours applies.
- Public holiday pay and penalty rates: the basics
What the national employment standards say about days off, pay for not working, reasonable requests to work, and how penalty rates are set.
- How to plan annual leave around public holidays
The arithmetic of bridging days, the combinations that reliably work in each state, and how the long weekend planner scores them.