Public holiday rules explained: Why some lucky Australians will get an extra day off to give them an Anzac Day long weekend – while millions miss out
- The Anzac Day public holiday will be different depending on your home state
- Only five of the country’s eight states and territories will have long weekend
- NSW, Victoria and Tasmania are the three states that will not have Monday off
The Anzac Day public holiday will be different depending on where you live with some states – including the nation’s two most populous – missing out on the annual long weekend for the second-consecutive year.
Only five of the country’s eight states and territories will get Monday off as a public holiday, a day after the national day of remembrance.
That is because some states do not allocate a supplementary public holiday when Anzac Day falls on the weekend like it has occurred this year.
That means most of Australians will have to wait until the Queens’ birthday in June for the next long weekend.
An Australian Army soldier stands as people attend the consular corps wreath-laying ceremony commemorating Anzac Day in Sydney. Only some states will mark the Anzac day public holiday on Monday
A veteran walks next to police officers as they attend the consular corps wreath-laying ceremony commemorating Anzac Day in Sydney
Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, the Northern Territory and the ACT are the five jurisdictions who will give residents the Anzac Day long weekend as they designate Monday as a public holiday if the day falls on a Sunday.
New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania will be back at work on Monday.
While New South Wales observes Anzac Day as a public holiday, there is no supplementary allocation of a day off on a weekday if it falls on a weekend, the same as in Victoria and Tasmania.
Tasmania only offers supplementary public holidays on a weekday when Christmas Day, New Year’s Day, Boxing Day and Australia Day falls on a weekend.
Australians on Sunday gathered in the chilly dawn at public ceremonies for the first time since 2019 after the Covid pandemic caused marches to be cancelled last year.
Thousands of rowdy Aussies later took to pubs across the country to sink beers and play a traditional game of two-up as Anzac Day commemorations continue.
A strong presence of police enforced the 1400-crowd limit at an Anzac Day dawn service in Melbourne while many others paid their respects behind fences
Alastair Tomkins, joined by his wife Katie and their sons Hugo, 9, (left) and Lyndon, 6, stand in silence after playing The Last Post in their driveway, at dawn, as neighbours stand outside their homes to commemorate Anzac Day in Brisbane
Australian soldiers played the coin toss betting game in trenches and on troopships during World War I. Two-up is illegal to play in NSW on any day other than April 25 due to it being an unregulated form of gambling.
Last year Anzac Day was marked by televised services only and no marches for the first time in more than a century as the pandemic kept people indoors.
Services and marches were back with limited crowds in most parts of the country.
Only services in Western Australia’s Perth and Peel regions were cancelled after a hotel quarantine outbreak led to community virus transmission and the imposition of a three-day lockdown.
Sunday marks the 106th anniversary of the landings at Gallipoli, a campaign which ultimately cost more than 8700 Australian lives.
Like last year, many Australians paid tribute at home by standing at the end of their driveways at dawn.
Outside of the Sydney CBD, a maximum of 5000 people – excluding spectators – can participate in an outdoor Anzac Day march or dawn service.
People gather on Currumbin Beach on the Gold Coast on Anzac Day to watch surf boats perform a burial at sea
Chief of Defence Angus Campbell said current members of the ADF have a lot to be proud of during his Anzac Day address. Pictured: A soldier gathers at Currumbin Beach on the Gold Coast
Prime Minister Scott Morrison told the dawn service at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra that the nation faced a defining moment 12 months ago when the pandemic first reached Australian shores.
‘A moment of uncertainty and danger, when the future seems so uncertain, masked by fog,’ he said in front of about 3,000 people.
‘We could not gather, but we held candles in driveways and on balconies and we played the Last Post on radios and iPhones as some, especially in our west, will do again today.
