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Public Holidays and Bank Holidays for Australia

The list of Australia bank holidays, national holidays and public holidays for 2008, comes from the Q++ Worldwide Public Holidays Database, the professional source of international public holidays long trusted by the world's foremost diary publishers. The information on this page is provided for private, non-professional, use. Qualified professionals can license data for 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and beyond. For details, please visit our licensing information page or

 © 1989-2008 Alter Ego Services

10 Jun 2008 (ABC News) After Queensland it is now the turn of Tasmania, through Tasmanian Liberal Senator, Guy Barnett, to consider reforms to the Queen's Birthday holiday, namely moving it to a more relevant date, such as the monarch's actual birthday in April or even to September 1 (National Wattle Day) or International Volunteers Day, on September 5. • 15 May 2008 (The West Australian-Perth) A private member’s Bill was introduced to the WA State Parliament, proposing to change the name of the first Monday in June, Foundation Day public holiday to Western Australia Day. • 23 Apr 2008 (ABC News + News.com.au) The State Government of New South Wales (NSW) is said to be considering a new state-wide public holiday to compensate for the recently announced decision by Federal Workplace Relations Minister, Julia Gillard, to deem industry-wide picnic days illegal under Labor's new workplace laws. • 06 Dec 2007 (The Courier Mail) The Government of Australia's State of Queensland is considering shifting the statewide Queen's Birthday public holiday from the second Monday in June to a date in October, beginning in 2009. No specifics have been released about what the changed date could be. In related news, Queensland opposition leader said that he supported moving one of the public holidays, but that he preferred that it be the Labour Day public holiday instead of the Queen's Birthday public holiday. • 09 Nov 2007 (The Age + AAP) Earlier today, the government of Victoria announced that legislation would be introduced into state parliament to make Melbourne Cup Day a public holiday across the entire state, starting in 2008. • 05 Nov 2007 (The Canberra Times) Tomorrow, for the first time, the Melbourne Cup public holiday will be celebrated in 2 of Australia's states; Victoria (with capital Melbourne) and the ACT (Australian Capital Territory). While this public holiday is a Victoria fixture, its future in the ACT is by no means certain. • 29 Jun 2007 (The Age) Beginning in 2008, DST (Daylight Saving Time) in Victoria, NSW, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT, will end on the first Sunday of April and will begin on the first Sunday in October. • More News Updates For up-to-the-minute news about public holidays trends and changes, visit our public holidays news and updates pages, or subscribe to one of our free email newsletters.

Overview: Australian is a federal state with each state declaring its own list of public holidays, each list, theoretically, potentially different. In practice, the majority of public holidays in Australia are common to all states, though there are some public holidays that are specific to one or more states only. There are also cases when the same named public holiday is celebrated on different dates in different states. Finally, the rules for moving public holidays that occur on a Saturday or Sunday to the following Monday do vary by state and by holiday. • State Abbreviations: ACT: Australia Capital Territory. NSW: New South Wales. NT: Northern Territory. QLD: Queensland. SA: South Australia. TAS: Tasmania. VIC: Victoria. WA: Western Australia. • Labour Day is on various days depending on the region. It is known as Eight Hours Day in TAS. • Canberra Day is a holiday in the ACT. • Holy Saturday is not a holiday in TAS, but TAS is the only territory to celebrate Easter Tuesday. • Foundation Day is celebrated in WA only. • The Queen's Birthday is celebrated in June everywhere but WA. • Picnic Day in NT was also a Bank Holiday in ACT and NSW in August, but it was removed from the list of ACT public holidays in 2006, and replaced with Family and Community Day (see below). • Melbourne Cup Day is, officially speaking, only celebrated in Melbourne; but the race is seen or heard on television or radio by about 85 percent of Australia's 20 million people, according to the Victoria Racing Club, not only during the race itself, but for most of the afternoon. • Family and Community Day (ACT) was created, beginning in 2007, to compensate for the abrogation of Picnic Day (see above). It is set to be held in 2007, and despite strong opposition from business, the ACT government has committed to it for 2008. It will be reviewed for 2009. • Boxing Day is called Proclamation Day in South Australia. • Daylight Saving Time is under the control of State governments. At present, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and the ACT use Daylight Saving Time. In Western Australia, there have been 3 referenda that have rejected the implementation of Daylight Saving Time, with the most recent over 12 years ago. Then, on November 21, 2006, a proposed three-year trial of daylight saving time, passed through the Upper House of Parliament with a massive majority. The trial of daylight saving will span three summers and be followed by a referendum. • Other Sources of Information For information not covered here, see the following specialized websites: Reserve Bank of Australia (Australia central bank), ASI Hot Spots (security-related world events: terrorist threats, political strife, strikes, criminal activity, aviation incidents and health outbreaks), CIA World Factbook (maps, demographic and economic statistics), Copp Clark (financial markets' trading hours, settlement holidays and currency non-clearing days), and the IFES Election Guide (information covering upcoming elections, referenda, electoral structures and past voter participation).

Observance : Any entry in the Observance column indicates that, in Australia, the holiday may be regional or non-official or limited to certain religious and/or linguistic groups, or begin at a time other than midnight. Note that religious holidays are included only if they are national public holidays, or if the national labour code has specific holiday allowances for employees of specific religions. For more information, see our pages on the religious calendars of the world. Aft=Afternoon, Arm=Armenian, Bah=Bahai, Bnk=Banks and most financial institutions, Bud=Buddhist, Cat=Catholic, Chr=Christian, Cop=Coptic, Eve=Evening, Gov=Government services and civil servants, Hin=Hindu, Jew=Jewish, Lin=Linguistic or ethnic groups, Mor=Morning, Mun=Municipal, Mus=Muslim, Orth=Orthodox, Othr=Miscellaneous partial observances (usually described in the Additional Information section of this page), Prt=Protestant, Reg=Regional, Rel=Other Religion, Sch=Schools and universities, Sik=Sikh.

Disclaimer
In many parts of the world, holidays are subject to arbitrary, last minute, changes by local authorities. While every effort has been made to present an accurate list of 2008 bank holidays, legal holidays and public holidays for Australia, we cannot accept any responsibility for any error or omission in the data presented above. You are therefore advised to verify the above dates with the embassy or consulate of Australia, before planning any trip to Australia. For last-minute updates to worldwide public holidays, visit our public holidays news and updates pages, or subscribe to our free email newsletters.