There are a few things about Australia that I thought I knew, but I had not fully grasped until I moved here. (Apologies to all Aussie readers)
Aussie family were talking about the October Long Weekend and how they would be spending the “Labour Day” holiday. (In my UK head there are no holidays at this time of year so I was already at a disadvantage.)
It turned out that Tasmania did not have a long weekend. Here, the Labour Day holiday is called “Eight Hour Day” and is in March. Oh, OK.
There are National Public Holidays celebrated across the whole country. These are:
New Year’s Day, Australia Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Anzac Day, Christmas Day and Boxing Day.
All other public holidays such as Queen’s Birthday and Labour Day are individually declared by the state and territory governments.
It makes me smile that Australian’s get a day off for the Queen’s birthday, but Brits do not.
Each state and territory will also have a number of ‘show days’ which are observed as public holidays in local regional areas.
Hobart has a public holiday this week for the Royal Hobart Show. But that is not for the whole of Tasmania. Launceston had their show day two weeks ago. And show day is on a Thursday? Not a Friday or Monday to make a long weekend. No wonder I’m confused.
RuthsArc 
Yes, we really need good calendars that give us all the public holiday information as well as school holidays that are different for each state :-). Nice post.
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Oh, I haven’t even got to school holidays.
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Well, actually, the late May holiday in the uk is sometimes known as the Queen’s Birthday – but I think that’s Victoria rather than the current Queen! I think holidays in England are more standardised but in Scotland some of them vary between councils. Eg most places have a Fair Holiday in the summer and a September weekend – but not all at the same time. It’s confusing here too!
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Victoria no longer has show day. A former premier, Jeff Kennett, took that from us. When I started work, you worked half of show day and half of Melbourne cup day in the private sector. Public servants had both, and Easter Tuesday – now gone for them. Our current premier introduced a new public holiday this year; the day before the grand final. I loved it, and since we got ripped off for Anzac falling on the weekend this year (another Kennett legacy), it was payback. Traders are making a song and dance about it, but if they had their way there would be no public holidays. Victoria also has a bunch of different regional cup days, often on different days of the week. Oh, and our show day used to be on Thursday as well.
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Oh my Mick. I’ll stick with Tassie days and NSW if family mention it. Yours sound way to confusing.
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Don’t Aussies just love their holidays. Being retired now every day is a holiday for me.
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In WA our public holidays are nicely spread out (other than the nationla ones you mentioned). It’s always the first Monday in March, the first Monday in June and the last Monday in September (which is usually after AFL grand final weekend). I like knowing there’s a holiday every few months.
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That sounds like a sensible arrangement of holidays.
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