When is New Year's Day?

Why 1 January is a holiday everywhere

New Year's Day is one of the eight public holidays written into the national employment standards, so it applies in every state and territory without any state having to declare it. It is also the only holiday that lands at the same moment for the whole country, which makes it the simplest date on this site: 1 January, every year, no exceptions.

What differs is what happens when 1 January falls on a Saturday or Sunday. Every jurisdiction gives workers a weekday off in that case, but the mechanics are not identical, and the difference matters for people who work weekends.

Weekend rules by state

In Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia and the ACT, a weekend New Year's Day stays a public holiday on the day itself and an additional public holiday is added on the following Monday. Someone rostered on the Saturday gets public holiday penalty rates, and Monday workers get the day off too.

South Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory work differently. A Saturday New Year's Day is simply moved to the Monday: the Saturday becomes an ordinary day and only the Monday is a public holiday. A Sunday New Year's Day is kept as a holiday and the Monday is added as well. The practical upshot for most office workers is the same (a Monday off), but weekend penalty rates differ, so check your state's row on the year pages if you work Saturdays.

When 1 January is a Monday there is nothing to move, and you get the plain three-day weekend that closes the Christmas break.

The Christmas to New Year stretch

Because Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day sit eight days apart, the working days between them are the most efficient annual leave in the calendar. In a typical year there are three working days between Boxing Day and New Year's Day; take those and you are off for ten or eleven days straight. The long weekend planner ranks this combination for your state, including years where the additional-day rules shift things around.

Most workplaces treat the week as a quiet one, and many close outright, so the days between the holidays are often the easiest leave to get approved. Book early anyway: everyone else has read the same calendar.

New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve is not a public holiday in most of Australia. South Australia and the Northern Territory are the exceptions: both declare a part-day public holiday from 7pm to midnight on 31 December. It does not create a day off, but penalty rates apply for those evening hours. See the guide to part-day public holidays for how they work.