Australia
Australia observes eight federal public holidays under Australian Government employment standards and an additional 5-10 days that vary by state and territory. ANZAC Day (25 April) and Australia Day (26 January) anchor the calendar; the contemporary observance of Australia Day is the most actively contested national public observance in Australia.
National public holidays
- New Year's Day - January 1
- Australia Day - January 26
- Good Friday - varies (Friday before Easter)
- Easter Monday - varies (Monday after Easter Sunday)
- ANZAC Day - April 25
- Christmas Day - December 25
- Boxing Day - December 26
- Queen's Birthday (state-determined)
State and territory additions
Each state and territory adds its own public holidays. Notable additions include Melbourne Cup Day (Victoria, first Tuesday of November), the Royal Hobart Regatta (Tasmania, second Tuesday of February), Reconciliation Day (ACT, last Monday of May), Picnic Day (NT, first Monday of August), and the Show holidays (state agricultural show public holidays in WA, QLD, SA, and TAS, each on a different date). Western Australia's Queen's Birthday is observed in late September or early October; Queensland's is observed in early October; other states and territories observe the day in June.
Notable non-statutory observances
Widely observed but not public holidays include Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Halloween, Melbourne Cup (in states other than Victoria), and Christmas Eve.
Contested holidays
Australia Day on January 26 is the most actively contested observance. The Indigenous Australian critique, anchored on the 1988 Day of Mourning march and growing through the 2010s, argues that the date commemorates British colonisation and the dispossession of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Survival Day and Invasion Day counter-observances draw tens of thousands in major cities. Local-government movements to "change the date" gained momentum from 2017; more than 80 Australian councils have adopted some form of date-change protocol.
ANZAC commemoration
ANZAC Day on April 25 is Australia's principal national day of remembrance. Dawn services (held at the timing of the 1915 Gallipoli landings), commemorative marches in every state and territory, and two-up gambling (legally restricted to ANZAC Day in most Australian states) anchor the day. The Australian War Memorial in Canberra hosts a national dawn service that draws 25,000+ attendees; Sydney's Cenotaph dawn service is the largest single gathering in the southern hemisphere.
State-by-state divergence
Australia's public holidays are administered at the state and territory level under separate public holiday acts. The national days (Christmas, ANZAC, Australia Day) are observed identically across jurisdictions. The Queen's Birthday is most divergent: WA observes in late September/early October; QLD observes in early October; NSW, ACT, SA, NT, and TAS observe in June; Victoria observes in June. Melbourne Cup Day (Victoria) and Picnic Day (NT) are the most prominent exclusively state- or territory-specific public holidays.
Indigenous cultural observances
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities mark several national days outside the mainstream public calendar: National Sorry Day (26 May, marking the 1997 Bringing Them Home report on the Stolen Generations), National Reconciliation Week (27 May - 3 June), Mabo Day (3 June, marking the 1992 Mabo v Queensland decision), and National NAIDOC Week (the second week of July, with NAIDOC standing for National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee). NAIDOC Week is increasingly recognised by employers as a paid day off, though not in all states.
Where the calendar differs from the UK
Australia's calendar is structurally closer to the UK than the US in structure (federal + state/territory layer; relatively few federal holidays), but the specific days and the contestation of Australia Day are distinct. Australia observes fewer bank holidays than the UK (8 national + 5-10 state vs the UK's 8 bank + regional). Australia is more progressive than the UK on Indigenous recognition (NAIDOC Week, Reconciliation Day in the ACT) and has more state-level flexibility. Australia has a higher density of long-weekend public holidays than either the US or the UK because of how consecutive days frequently cluster around weekends.
Major holiday briefs on this page
Each of the holidays discussed on this regional overview has a full standalone brief covering its origins, observance practices, and modern controversy: