When is Anzac Day?

Where the day comes from

Anzac Day commemorates the landing of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915, and has grown to honour all Australians who have served and died in wars and peacekeeping. The first anniversary was marked in 1916, and by the late 1920s every state had made it a public holiday. It is now one of the national public holidays under the Fair Work Act.

The day has a fixed shape: a dawn service, a march of veterans and their descendants, and, in the afternoon, two-up in pubs and RSL clubs, which is legal on this day only in most states. Unlike Australia Day, the date itself is not moved for the public holiday. Anzac Day is 25 April whatever day of the week that is.

What happens when 25 April is a weekend

This is where the states diverge more than for any other holiday, and it is the reason a weekend Anzac Day produces so many search queries.

• Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania do nothing. A Saturday or Sunday Anzac Day is a weekend with a dawn service; there is no Monday off.
• Queensland, South Australia and the Northern Territory move a Sunday Anzac Day to the Monday. A Saturday Anzac Day stays on the Saturday with no extra day.
• Western Australia keeps the weekend day as a holiday and adds the Monday, whether 25 April is a Saturday or a Sunday.
• The ACT adds a Monday after a Saturday Anzac Day, and moves a Sunday Anzac Day to the Monday.

The year pages show how this plays out for a given year, so you can see whether your state gets the long weekend before you book anything.

Trading restrictions

Anzac Day carries some of the tightest retail trading rules in the country. Most states require general retail shops to stay shut until at least 1pm, and Queensland and Western Australia keep most shops closed for the whole day. Cafes, petrol stations, chemists and small shops are usually exempt. Sport is a fixture of the afternoon: the AFL match at the MCG and the NRL games in Sydney and Melbourne are among the most attended of the season.