Which 2018 Public Holidays can we still look forward to?

Public holidays are as Australian as sprinting across scorching sand at the local beach.

Most can agree, there’s nothing better than a sleep in followed by a barbecue on a day you’d usually be stuck in an office or at a work site.

Our treasured time off is for everything from bowing our collective heads in memory of the Anzacs, to clipping on a fascinator and sipping cheap champagne while screaming at horses.  

Public holidays are upheld by individual states and territories, embedded in industrial law as paid days of rest or raucousness. 

NSW residents enjoy 11 public holidays a year, while Victorians have managed to slip in one extra, with the Melbourne Cup and the AFL Grand Final taking the southern states total to 13.

Australia’s envious litany of public holidays leave residents of some countries green with envy. But these holidays didn’t just happen, they were hard earned by unions. Our four-weeks of annual leave began with a push from the printer’s union in 1935.

The idea of paid leave soon spread to other industries.

In 1945, the Annual Holidays Act granted workers two weeks paid leave. By the mid-1960s, three weeks became the norm. And in 1974, four weeks became standard.

Adding public holidays to this equation means Australians enjoy about six-weeks of paid leave every year.

While many public holidays have passed us for 2018, fret not. There are still these to come:

National (Australian Public Holidays):

Christmas Day – Tuesday, December 25

Boxing Day – Wednesday, December 26

NSW:

Labour Day – Monday, October 1

Victoria:

AFL Grand Final –Friday, September 28

Melbourne Cup Day – Tuesday, November 6

Queensland:

Queen’s Birthday – Monday, October 1

Western Australia:

Queen’s Birthday – Monday, September 24

ACT:

Labour Day – Monday, October 1

Northern Territory:

Christmas Eve (7pm-midnight) – Monday, December 24

New Year’s Eve (7pm-midnight) – Monday, December 31

South Australia:

Labour Day – Monday, October 1

Christmas Eve (7pm-midnight) – Monday, December 24

Proclamation Day – Wednesday, December 26

New Year’s Eve (7pm-midnight) – Monday, December 31

Tasmania:

Recreation Day (north of Oatlands) – Monday, November 5

Opening hours for NSW & ACT Labour Day, October 1:

Dan Murphy’s:

Trading as normal.

BWS:

Trading as normal.

Coles:

Trading as normal.

ALDI:

Trading as normal.

Woolworths:

Trading as normal.

Hoyts and Village:

Trading as normal.

Westfield Shopping Centres:

Modified trading hours, 10am - 7pm.

Bunnings:

Trading 8am-6pm.

Contact individual stores as times may differ.