Australia public holidays in 2027 for employers

Australia has no single list of 2027 public holidays. Each state and territory sets its own, and the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) prints all eight lists on one page. Counting only statewide full-day holidays that fall Monday to Friday, an employee has 8 in Tasmania and 11 in the Australian Capital Territory, with 9 or 10 in the other six jurisdictions. Area days add one or two for sites in Brisbane and Tasmania, and in Northern Territory show regions.

Christmas Day falls on a Saturday and Boxing Day on a Sunday, so every list has December 27 (Monday) and December 28 (Tuesday) as public holidays. Anzac Day falls on a Sunday, and the Monday after it is a holiday in some places only. Victoria’s Friday before the AFL Grand Final has no date yet. The FWO shows it as “Subject to AFL schedule (date TBC)”, and Business Victoria says it will add the exact date when the 2027 AFL schedule is released.

How many holidays each jurisdiction has

The table counts the dated entries on the FWO list, which includes the ACT’s Sunday, April 25, and the five show days that the NT Government page adds, plus Tasmania’s Easter Sunday from the Statutory Holidays Act 2000.

Western Australia’s King’s Birthday and Victoria’s Melbourne Cup count as full-day holidays, although some regional areas hold them on another date. Victoria’s undated AFL Friday adds one weekday holiday once it has a date, because it is a Friday. The NSW count includes Monday, April 26, which the NSW table lists as an additional day without a stated rule. Tasmania’s local count covers only the four days on the FWO list.

Every dated holiday, by state and territory

Rows come from the FWO list, plus the NT show days and Tasmania’s Easter Sunday. The FWO list shows the ACT’s Sunday, April 25 as an additional public holiday for Anzac Day, and declaration NI2026-387 is the instrument that declares it. The government pages for every jurisdiction except Tasmania and the ACT list the same dates. The ACT Government page, last updated August 14, 2026, lists Anzac Day on Sunday 25 and Monday 26 April and prints the full dates for Christmas Day and Boxing Day. ACT is the Australian Capital Territory and NSW is New South Wales. NT is the Northern Territory and QLD is Queensland. SA is South Australia and TAS is Tasmania. VIC is Victoria and WA is Western Australia. Rows marked announced are listed by a government page, and this page found no legal instrument for them.

Western Australia and Tasmania list no Saturday holiday at Easter. Section 4(da) of the Statutory Holidays Act 2000 (Tas), inserted by an amending Act that received Royal Assent on October 9, 2026, makes Easter Sunday a Tasmanian public holiday, although the FWO 2027 list and WorkSafe Tasmania do not show it. Queensland calls the Saturday the day after Good Friday and Victoria calls it the Saturday before Easter Sunday. Use each state’s own name on rosters and payslips.

Anzac Day, Christmas and Boxing Day on weekends

Anzac Day falls on Sunday, April 25. Christmas Day falls on Saturday (December 25) and Boxing Day on Sunday (December 26). Weekend rules differ by jurisdiction, as the government pages show.

• New South Wales: Anzac Day is always observed on April 25, and an additional gazetted public holiday follows on the next available weekday when Christmas Day or Boxing Day (or New Year’s Day) falls on a weekend. Footnote 3 of the table says the public holiday standard in the Act provides an additional holiday on the following Monday or Tuesday in those cases. The 2027 table also shows an additional day on Monday, April 26, without stating a rule for it.
• Victoria: there is no replacement holiday when Anzac Day falls on a weekend. The Monday after Christmas Day is an additional public holiday because Christmas Day is a Saturday.
• Queensland: Anzac Day is observed on the following Monday if April 25 is a Sunday. The Holidays Act 1983 adds a public holiday when Christmas Day or Boxing Day (or New Year’s Day) falls on a weekend.
• Western Australia: the next Monday is also a public holiday when Anzac Day or Christmas Day (or New Year’s Day) falls on a Saturday or Sunday, and the next Tuesday is one when Boxing Day falls on a Sunday or Monday.
• South Australia: December 25 on a Saturday or Sunday makes that day and the following Monday public holidays, and December 26 on a Sunday or Monday does the same with the following Tuesday. There is no substitute or additional holiday when April 25 falls on a weekend.
• Tasmania: WorkSafe Tasmania and section 4 of the Statutory Holidays Act 2000 give the Monday after a Saturday Christmas Day and the Tuesday after a Sunday Boxing Day. WorkSafe Tasmania adds that no substitute or additional holiday is observed when Anzac Day falls on a weekend. In 2027 that gives Monday, December 27 and Tuesday, December 28, and no Monday for Anzac Day.
• Northern Territory: the NT Government page states no weekend rule, but Schedule 2 of the Public Holidays Act 1981, as in force at June 1, 2023, moves Anzac Day to the following Monday when it falls on a Sunday. It adds the following Monday after a Saturday or Sunday Christmas Day and the following Tuesday after a Sunday or Monday Boxing Day.
• ACT: section 3(1)(a) of the Holidays Act 1958 (ACT) moves Anzac Day to the following Monday when April 25 is a Sunday, and adds the following Monday when Christmas Day or Boxing Day is a Saturday and the following Tuesday when either is a Sunday. In 2027 that gives Monday, April 26 for Anzac Day, and Monday, December 27 and Tuesday, December 28 for Christmas week. Declaration NI2026-387, made under section 3(1)(b) of the Act, also makes Sunday, April 25, 2027 an additional public holiday, so the ACT has holidays on both days. The declaration was signed on August 13, 2026, notified on August 14, 2026 and has been in force since August 15, 2026, and the register’s law history lists its repeal as commencing April 26, 2027 (midnight). The ACT Government page, last updated August 14, 2026, lists “ANZAC Day Sunday 25 and Monday 26 April”, “Christmas Day Saturday 25 and Monday 27 December” and “Boxing Day Sunday 26 and Tuesday 28 December”. The FWO list gives “Sunday 25 April: Additional public holiday for Anzac Day” and “Monday 26 April: Anzac Day” for the ACT. The Holidays (Anzac Day) Amendment Bill 2026, presented on October 21, 2026 and before the Assembly, would make both April 25 and the following Monday public holidays whenever April 25 falls on a Saturday or Sunday. Clause 2 of the Bill says the Act commences on the 14th day after its notification day.

Part-day and local holidays

Queensland has Christmas Eve (Friday, December 24) from 6 pm to midnight. The Northern Territory and South Australia have Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve (Friday, December 31) from 7 pm to midnight.

• Northern Territory: five Friday show days apply by show day region, four in July and one on August 13, and the NT Government’s show day regions page lists the towns in each region.
• Queensland: the Royal Queensland Show holiday on Wednesday, August 11 is for the Brisbane area only on the state’s public holidays page. The Queensland Government’s show holidays page names the City of Brisbane for that date. Its 2027 table of local show holidays by district lists Monday, August 9 under the same event name for other districts, such as the City of Moreton Bay and Logan City, so check the district for each site.
• Tasmania: the FWO lists the Royal Hobart Regatta and the Royal Hobart Show for certain areas only, Recreation Day for areas that do not observe the Regatta, and Easter Tuesday as generally for the Tasmanian Public Service only. Schedule 1 of the Statutory Holidays Act 2000 fixes the Royal Hobart Show on the Thursday before the fourth Saturday in October, which is October 21, 2027. WorkSafe Tasmania also lists local days for 2024 to 2026 that the FWO 2027 list omits, such as the Launceston Cup and the Burnie Show, and the Act sets them by rule in Schedules 1 and 2. WorkSafe Tasmania says that listing a day as a public holiday does not automatically mean employees can have the day off work, and tells employees to check their award, agreement and/or National Employment Standard to see whether a holiday applies at their workplace.
• Western Australia and Victoria: some regional areas hold the King’s Birthday (Western Australia) or the Melbourne Cup (Victoria) on a different date, and Business Victoria says a non-metro council can arrange an alternate local holiday.
• New South Wales and the ACT: the NSW table lists a Bank Holiday on Monday, August 2 with a footnote saying it “is not a declared public holiday”. Retail bank branches and certain financial institutions must stay closed that day unless otherwise exempt. The ACT Government page also says there is a bank holiday on the first Monday in August (August 2, 2027) and that bank holidays “do not apply to everyone”.

Working on a public holiday and what it costs

The public holiday rules sit in Division 10 of Part 2-2 of the Fair Work Act 2009, with section 114 on the entitlement to be absent, section 115 on the meaning of public holiday and section 116 on payment for absence. Section 115(1)(b) adds any other day or part-day “declared or prescribed by or under a law of a State or Territory” to be observed as a public holiday “generally within the State or Territory, or a region of the State or Territory”. The same paragraph leaves out a day or part-day, or a kind of day or part-day, that is “excluded by the regulations from counting as a public holiday”. Section 115(2) deals with substitution: when a State or Territory law substitutes a day or part-day for one that would otherwise be a public holiday because of subsection (1), the substituted day or part-day “is the public holiday”. This page did not open the regulations, and “What we could not confirm” below says what that leaves open.

All employees have a right to be absent from work on a public holiday. Employers can ask an employee to work, but the request has to be reasonable, and an employee can refuse if the employee has reasonable grounds or the request is unreasonable. The FWO lists factors for employers to weigh, including the employee’s personal circumstances, the notice given and any penalty rates the employee might receive.

On the same page the FWO says employees (except casual employees) who normally work on the day a public holiday falls will be paid their base pay rate for the ordinary hours they would have worked, and that an employee doesn’t get paid for a public holiday if they don’t normally work on the day. The base pay rate does not include incentive-based payments, bonuses, loadings, monetary allowances, overtime or penalty rates. A public holiday during paid leave isn’t counted as annual leave or sick leave.

Pay for working on the day is a separate question. The FWO lists “extra pay (for example, public holiday rates)” and points to its Pay and Conditions Tool, but the page states no figure and links to a separate “Public holiday penalty rates” page. The Fair Work Commission says awards contain the minimum pay and conditions for the employees they cover, and that awards cover industries or job types while agreements cover employers or workplaces. Look for the public holiday rate in the award or agreement that covers each group of staff, and confirm it in the Pay and Conditions Tool before payroll uses it.

What we could not confirm

• Victoria’s Friday before the AFL Grand Final has no published date. Business Victoria says it typically falls on the last Friday in September and that the page will be updated on release of the 2027 AFL schedule. This page gives no date, and the timeline above leaves the day out.
• Whether the Holidays (Anzac Day) Amendment Bill 2026 becomes law. It is still a bill before the Assembly and would make April 25 and the following Monday public holidays whenever April 25 falls on a Saturday or Sunday. Clause 2 of the Bill says the Act commences on the 14th day after its notification day. The recheck at the December 15, 2026 review should therefore look for notification on the register as well as for passage. The 2027 dates themselves do not depend on the Bill: the ACT Government and FWO lists show both April 25 and April 26, which matches declaration NI2026-387.
• The FWO 2027 list and WorkSafe Tasmania, which lists 2024 to 2026 only, do not show Easter Sunday for Tasmania, so this page follows section 4(da) of the Statutory Holidays Act 2000. The Minister can amend Schedule 1 of the Act by public notice, and a notice that changes a day needs the approval of both Houses of Parliament, so recheck the Tasmanian local dates at the next review.
• Western Australia’s King’s Birthday on Monday, September 27 is on the FWO list and on the WA Government page, last updated October 22, 2026. Neither page says how the date is set, and the WA page has no regional table for 2027.
• The five Northern Territory show days are on the NT Government page, which cites no Gazette notice, and Schedule 2 of the Public Holidays Act 1981 (NT), as in force at June 1, 2023, lists none.
• The NSW page gives no rule for Monday, April 26, which its 2027 table lists as “Additional Day” without a footnote.
• Which days or kinds of day the regulations exclude from counting as public holidays under section 115(1)(b). The paragraph leaves out a day or part-day, or a kind of day or part-day, “excluded by the regulations from counting as a public holiday”. This page did not open the regulations, so it does not say whether group-only days such as Tasmania’s Easter Tuesday, or area-only days such as the Northern Territory show days, are among them. Confirm those days with the Fair Work Ombudsman before treating them as public holidays for pay.
• This page gives no public holiday penalty rate because the FWO public holidays page states none, although that page links to a separate “Public holiday penalty rates” page.

What to do in your 2027 plan

Build the holiday calendar for each site from the state or territory where it operates. Put December 27 and 28 in every Australian roster, decide site by site whether Monday, April 26 is a holiday, and add Sunday, April 25 for ACT sites.

Hold Victorian September rosters open until Business Victoria prints the AFL date, and set a reminder to check the page after the 2027 AFL schedule is released. Tasmanian sites need an area check, because the local days depend on the area, Easter Tuesday on the employee group, and other local show and cup days are not on the FWO list, and they also need Sunday, March 28 (Easter Sunday) in the roster. Regional sites in other states need their local dates. Ask payroll to take the public holiday rate from the award or agreement for each group of staff.

Australia Employment Law Changes 2027 covers the other legal dates. For other markets, see UK Bank Holidays 2027 for Employers, Singapore Public Holidays 2027 for Employers and Public Holidays 2027 by Country: Global Team Calendar.

Start by listing every Australian site with its state or territory and its award or agreement, then record the result in your 2027 Contract Update Checklist.

Written and reviewed by the HR Riant Editorial Team. General information, not legal advice.