All of Australia
Public holidays by state and territory
Holidays are set by each state and territory, not nationally, and they genuinely differ — Victoria takes Labour Day in March and New South Wales in October, Tasmania keeps Easter Tuesday, and Queensland sets show days council by council. Pick a jurisdiction for the dates and the law behind them.
Choose a state or territory
- Public holidays NSW
13 public holidays in 2026. Next: Labour Day, Mon 5 Oct.
New South Wales adds a day when Christmas or Boxing Day lands on a weekend, moves Australia Day rather than adding to it, and never moves Anzac Day at all.
- Public holidays VIC
14 public holidays in 2026. Next: Friday before the AFL Grand Final, Fri 25 Sep.
Victoria takes Labour Day in March rather than October, stops for a horse race and a football match, and lets country councils trade the Cup for a local day.
- Public holidays QLD
14 public holidays in 2026. Next: King's Birthday, Mon 5 Oct.
Queensland runs on its own calendar: Labour Day in May, the King’s Birthday in October, a part-day public holiday on Christmas Eve, and show days set council by council.
- Public holidays WA
14 public holidays in 2026. Next: King's Birthday, Mon 28 Sep.
Western Australia has no Easter Saturday, a Western Australia Day nobody else has, and a King’s Birthday that is proclaimed each year rather than fixed by a rule.
- Public holidays SA
15 public holidays in 2026. Next: Labour Day, Mon 5 Oct.
South Australia runs on a Public Holidays Act only two years old, calls Boxing Day the Proclamation Day holiday, and has two part-day holidays that start at 7pm.
- Public holidays TAS
21 public holidays in 2026. Next: Christmas Day, Fri 25 Dec.
Tasmania has no Easter Saturday or Sunday, calls Labour Day Eight Hours Day, and hands out nine local public holidays by region — more than anywhere else in the country.
- Public holidays ACT
15 public holidays in 2026. Next: Labour Day, Mon 5 Oct.
The ACT is the only place in Australia with a Reconciliation Day — and the one jurisdiction here where the Act alone gives the wrong answer about Anzac Day.
- Public holidays NT
15 public holidays in 2026. Next: Christmas Eve, Thu 24 Dec.
The Territory takes a Picnic Day in August that exists nowhere else, and leaves its show days out of the Act entirely.
The same holiday, different answers
Where the jurisdictions published here disagree. A dash means the day is not a public holiday in that jurisdiction at all — not that we are missing it.
| Holiday | NSW | VIC | QLD | WA | SA | TAS | ACT | NT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour Day | Mon 5 Oct | Mon 9 Mar | Mon 4 May | Mon 2 Mar | Mon 5 Oct | — | Mon 5 Oct | — |
| Anzac Day | Sat 25 Apr | Sat 25 Apr | Sat 25 Apr | Sat 25 Apr | Sat 25 Apr | Sat 25 Apr | Sat 25 Apr | Sat 25 Apr |
| Easter Sunday | Sun 5 Apr | Sun 5 Apr | Sun 5 Apr | Sun 5 Apr | Sun 5 Apr | — | Sun 5 Apr | Sun 5 Apr |
| Melbourne Cup Day | — | Tue 3 Nov | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Boxing Day | Sat 26 Dec | Sat 26 Dec | Sat 26 Dec | Sat 26 Dec | — | — | Sat 26 Dec | Sat 26 Dec |
Why there is no single Australian list
Eight parliaments, eight sets of dates
There is no federal public-holiday Act. Each state and territory declares its own days under its own law, so the same date can be a holiday on one side of a border and an ordinary Tuesday on the other. Even where the names match, the weekend rules do not.
Anzac Day 2027 makes the point. It falls on a Sunday, and the country splits three ways: New South Wales, Western Australia and the ACT keep the 25th and add the Monday as well; Queensland and the Northern Territory move the holiday to the Monday, so the Sunday stops being one; and Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania add nothing at all. One commemoration, eight jurisdictions, three different answers.
That is why every page here is scoped to one jurisdiction and cites that jurisdiction's own instrument. A single national table has to flatten those differences, which is exactly where the errors live. See how these pages are checked, or turn the question round and see which states share a long weekend month by month, or check the school holidays, which are a different list again.