Keeping it right
Public holiday hours in Australia: the state by state list Google won't give you
Every public holiday for the rest of 2026 and all of 2027, state by state, plus how to set special hours on your Google Business Profile so customers don't turn up to a locked door.
Google will nudge you about Christmas. It will probably nudge you about Anzac Day.
It will not nudge you about Adelaide Cup Day, Picnic Day, Recreation Day, the Royal Hobart Show, the Ekka, or the Friday before the AFL Grand Final. Those are the ones that catch people out, because they are the days when half the country is at work and your town is not.
This page has every date for the rest of 2026 and all of 2027, split by state and territory, plus the ten minute job of putting them into your profile.
Why this is worth ten minutes
Three things happen when your holiday hours are wrong.
Someone drives to your shop and it is shut. That is the expensive one. It often turns into a one star review that says nothing about your work and everything about your opening hours.
Google starts hedging. If it is not confident in your hours it can show "Hours might differ" next to your listing, which is exactly the wrong message when someone is deciding whether to bother driving over.
Someone rings and nobody answers. They ring the next business on the list.
None of this is about rankings. It is about a customer with their keys in their hand looking at their phone.
How to set special hours
Special hours sit on top of your normal hours for a single date. Your regular hours stay untouched.
- Find your business on Google Search, or open Google Maps.
- Select Edit profile. In Maps, that is Edit profile, then Business information.
- Go to the Hours tab.
- Next to Special hours, select Edit.
- Google will suggest dates it knows about. Select Review to confirm each one. For anything it has not suggested, select Add a date and enter it yourself.
- If you are closed, leave the Closed box ticked. If you are open, untick it and enter the times.
- For a day with a break in the middle, or an early close after a lunch service, use More, then Add hours, to enter a second set of times.
Two things Google buries in the fine print.
Your main hours have to be set to "Open with main hours" for special hours to appear at all. If your profile is set to something else, you can enter special hours all day and nobody will see them.
If you are closing for seven days or more in a row, do not use special hours. Mark the business as Temporarily closed instead, and change it back when you reopen. This is the one that trips up trades and clinics over the Christmas shutdown.
Confirm the days you are open, not just the days you are closed
This is the bit almost everyone skips.
Google recommends confirming your hours for official holidays even when they are identical to your normal hours. If you are open as usual on Labour Day, go in and confirm it. Otherwise Google is left guessing, and guessing is what produces the "Hours might differ" label.
Confirming a normal day takes about four seconds and it is the single highest value thing on this page.
The dates: rest of 2026
Australia Day, Easter and Anzac Day 2026 have already been and gone. These are the ones still ahead of you.
Australian Capital Territory
- Monday 5 October: Labour Day
- Friday 25 December: Christmas Day
- Saturday 26 December: Boxing Day
- Monday 28 December: additional day for Boxing Day
New South Wales
- Monday 5 October: Labour Day
- Friday 25 December: Christmas Day
- Saturday 26 December: Boxing Day
- Monday 28 December: additional day for Boxing Day
Northern Territory
- Monday 3 August: Picnic Day
- Thursday 24 December: Christmas Eve, part-day from 7pm
- Friday 25 December: Christmas Day
- Saturday 26 December: Boxing Day
- Monday 28 December: additional day for Boxing Day
- Thursday 31 December: New Year's Eve, part-day from 7pm
Queensland
- Wednesday 12 August: Royal Queensland Show, Brisbane area only
- Monday 5 October: King's Birthday
- Thursday 24 December: Christmas Eve, part-day from 6pm
- Friday 25 December: Christmas Day
- Saturday 26 December: Boxing Day
- Monday 28 December: additional day for Boxing Day
South Australia
- Monday 5 October: Labour Day
- Thursday 24 December: Christmas Eve, part-day from 7pm
- Friday 25 December: Christmas Day
- Saturday 26 December: Proclamation Day
- Monday 28 December: additional day for Proclamation Day
- Thursday 31 December: New Year's Eve, part-day from 7pm
Tasmania
- Thursday 22 October: Royal Hobart Show, certain areas including Hobart
- Monday 2 November: Recreation Day, areas that do not observe the Royal Hobart Regatta
- Friday 25 December: Christmas Day
- Monday 28 December: Boxing Day
Victoria
- Friday before the AFL Grand Final: date depends on the AFL schedule
- Tuesday 3 November: Melbourne Cup, some regional councils hold theirs on a different date
- Friday 25 December: Christmas Day
- Saturday 26 December: Boxing Day
- Monday 28 December: additional day for Boxing Day
Western Australia
- Monday 28 September: King's Birthday, some regional areas differ
- Friday 25 December: Christmas Day
- Saturday 26 December: Boxing Day
- Monday 28 December: additional day for Boxing Day
The dates: 2027
Two things to flag before the lists.
Christmas Day falls on a Saturday and Boxing Day on a Sunday, so most places pick up substitute holidays on Monday 27 and Tuesday 28 December. That end of year run is long. Set it now.
Anzac Day falls on a Sunday. Whether you get a Monday is entirely dependent on where you are, and this is the date where the holiday websites contradict each other. The list below follows the Fair Work Ombudsman. If your trading over that weekend actually matters, check your own state government source before you set anything.
Australian Capital Territory
- Friday 1 January: New Year's Day
- Tuesday 26 January: Australia Day
- Monday 8 March: Canberra Day
- Friday 26 March: Good Friday
- Saturday 27 March: Easter Saturday
- Sunday 28 March: Easter Sunday
- Monday 29 March: Easter Monday
- Monday 26 April: Anzac Day
- Monday 31 May: Reconciliation Day
- Monday 14 June: King's Birthday
- Monday 4 October: Labour Day
- Saturday 25 December: Christmas Day
- Sunday 26 December: Boxing Day
- Monday 27 December and Tuesday 28 December: additional days
New South Wales
- Friday 1 January: New Year's Day
- Tuesday 26 January: Australia Day
- Friday 26 March: Good Friday
- Saturday 27 March: Easter Saturday
- Sunday 28 March: Easter Sunday
- Monday 29 March: Easter Monday
- Sunday 25 April: Anzac Day
- Monday 14 June: King's Birthday
- Monday 4 October: Labour Day
- Saturday 25 December: Christmas Day
- Sunday 26 December: Boxing Day
- Monday 27 December and Tuesday 28 December: additional days
Northern Territory
- Friday 1 January: New Year's Day
- Tuesday 26 January: Australia Day
- Friday 26 March: Good Friday
- Saturday 27 March: Easter Saturday
- Sunday 28 March: Easter Sunday
- Monday 29 March: Easter Monday
- Monday 26 April: Anzac Day
- Monday 3 May: May Day
- Monday 14 June: King's Birthday
- Monday 2 August: Picnic Day
- Friday 24 December: Christmas Eve, part-day from 7pm
- Saturday 25 December: Christmas Day
- Sunday 26 December: Boxing Day
- Monday 27 December and Tuesday 28 December: additional days
- Friday 31 December: New Year's Eve, part-day from 7pm
Queensland
- Friday 1 January: New Year's Day
- Tuesday 26 January: Australia Day
- Friday 26 March: Good Friday
- Saturday 27 March: the day after Good Friday
- Sunday 28 March: Easter Sunday
- Monday 29 March: Easter Monday
- Monday 26 April: Anzac Day
- Monday 3 May: Labour Day
- Wednesday 11 August: Royal Queensland Show, Brisbane area only
- Monday 4 October: King's Birthday
- Friday 24 December: Christmas Eve, part-day from 6pm
- Saturday 25 December: Christmas Day
- Sunday 26 December: Boxing Day
- Monday 27 December and Tuesday 28 December: additional days
South Australia
- Friday 1 January: New Year's Day
- Tuesday 26 January: Australia Day
- Monday 8 March: Adelaide Cup Day
- Friday 26 March: Good Friday
- Saturday 27 March: Easter Saturday
- Sunday 28 March: Easter Sunday
- Monday 29 March: Easter Monday
- Sunday 25 April: Anzac Day
- Monday 14 June: King's Birthday
- Monday 4 October: Labour Day
- Friday 24 December: Christmas Eve, part-day from 7pm
- Saturday 25 December: Christmas Day
- Sunday 26 December: Proclamation Day
- Monday 27 December and Tuesday 28 December: additional days
- Friday 31 December: New Year's Eve, part-day from 7pm
Tasmania
- Friday 1 January: New Year's Day
- Tuesday 26 January: Australia Day
- Monday 8 February: Royal Hobart Regatta, certain areas only
- Monday 8 March: Eight Hours Day
- Friday 26 March: Good Friday
- Monday 29 March: Easter Monday
- Tuesday 30 March: Easter Tuesday, generally state public service only
- Sunday 25 April: Anzac Day
- Monday 14 June: King's Birthday
- Thursday 21 October: Royal Hobart Show, certain areas including Hobart
- Monday 1 November: Recreation Day, areas that do not observe the Regatta
- Saturday 25 December: Christmas Day
- Monday 27 December: additional day for Christmas Day
- Tuesday 28 December: Boxing Day
Victoria
- Friday 1 January: New Year's Day
- Tuesday 26 January: Australia Day
- Monday 8 March: Labour Day
- Friday 26 March: Good Friday
- Saturday 27 March: the Saturday before Easter Sunday
- Sunday 28 March: Easter Sunday
- Monday 29 March: Easter Monday
- Sunday 25 April: Anzac Day
- Monday 14 June: King's Birthday
- Friday before the AFL Grand Final: date depends on the AFL schedule
- Tuesday 2 November: Melbourne Cup, some regional councils differ
- Saturday 25 December: Christmas Day
- Sunday 26 December: Boxing Day
- Monday 27 December and Tuesday 28 December: additional days
Western Australia
- Friday 1 January: New Year's Day
- Tuesday 26 January: Australia Day
- Monday 1 March: Labour Day
- Friday 26 March: Good Friday
- Sunday 28 March: Easter Sunday
- Monday 29 March: Easter Monday
- Sunday 25 April: Anzac Day
- Monday 26 April: additional day for Anzac Day
- Monday 7 June: Western Australia Day
- Monday 27 September: King's Birthday, some regional areas differ
- Saturday 25 December: Christmas Day
- Sunday 26 December: Boxing Day
- Monday 27 December and Tuesday 28 December: additional days
Six ways this goes wrong
You only set the days you are closed. Confirm the open ones too. That is what stops Google hedging.
You leave it until the day before. Give it a few days so the change works its way through Search and Maps.
You set the state holiday and miss the local one. Show days, regional Melbourne Cup dates and the Tasmanian regional holidays are decided locally. Your council or show society is the source, not a national calendar.
You forget the part-day holidays. In South Australia and the Northern Territory, Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve are part-day public holidays from 7pm. In Queensland, Christmas Eve is part-day from 6pm. That is a staffing cost question, not a Google setting, but in practice plenty of businesses close early on those nights and never tell anyone. If you close at 6pm instead of 9pm, that is special hours.
You use special hours for a two week shutdown. Seven days or more in a row means Temporarily closed. Change it back the day you reopen, and do not leave it sitting there in February.
You update Google and nothing else. Your website footer, your voicemail greeting, your booking system and your Facebook page all say something different. Fix them in the same sitting.
The habit that actually works
Twice a year, half an hour each time.
In late November, load the whole of the following year. Every date on your state's list, closed or open, confirmed. Then you are done until winter.
In late June, do a second pass. By then the AFL Grand Final Friday has a date, any regional show days are confirmed, and you can catch anything that shifted.
If you would rather not think about it again, the alternative is having someone do it on a cadence and show you the log. That is the job.
Sources. Public holiday dates are from the Fair Work Ombudsman lists for 2026 and 2027. Special hours instructions are from Google Business Profile Help. Regional and part-day holidays vary, and dates can change. Check your own state or territory government source before you rely on any of this.
Last checked: 25 July 2026.