QLD Public Holidays 2026: Full Calendar, Dates and How Brisbane Celebrates

Queensland has its own distinct public holiday calendar – Labour Day falls in May rather than October, there’s a dedicated Royal Queensland Show holiday that only applies in Brisbane, and dozens of other towns run their own separate “Show Day” on a completely different date. This guide covers every statewide QLD public holiday for 2026, exactly how Brisbane marks the big ones (with real locations), and how the regional Show Day system actually works. Planning around school terms too? Check our QLD School Holidays 2026: Complete Calendar for every school break week by week.

Full 2026 QLD public holiday calendar

This is the complete list of statewide Queensland public holidays for 2026, plus the Brisbane-only Royal Queensland Show holiday.

Australia Day in QLD: 26 January

Brisbane’s Australia Day citizenship ceremony is held at Brisbane City Hall, typically welcoming more than 500 new citizens from dozens of countries in a single event. Riverside Green at South Bank Parklands hosts a free public celebration through the afternoon and evening, with food stalls from local producers, live music, cooking demonstrations and family activities – a popular alternative to Sydney or Melbourne’s harbour-centred events, built instead around South Bank’s riverside parklands.

For the full background on Australia Day’s history and the ongoing debate around the date, see our Australia Day guide.

Anzac Day in QLD: 25 April

Brisbane’s Dawn Service is held at the Shrine of Remembrance in Anzac Square (285 Ann Street), starting at 4.28am, with the public invited to gather from around 3.30am. The Anzac Day Parade follows along Adelaide Street between George Street and Creek Street from roughly 9.45am to 12.30pm, with current and former servicemen and women marching through the CBD – Adelaide Street is generally considered the best vantage point. The Anzac Square Memorial Galleries stay open from early morning until mid-afternoon to support the day’s commemorations.

Remember: unlike NSW, the ACT and WA, Queensland does not add an extra public holiday because Anzac Day falls on a Saturday in 2026. For the full history of Anzac Day and the dawn service tradition, see our Anzac Day guide.

Easter and Labour Day in QLD: 3-6 April and 4 May

Queensland observes all four Easter public holidays – Good Friday, Easter Saturday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday – the same as NSW and most other states. For the full history of Easter in Australia, see our Easter in Australia guide.

Queensland’s Labour Day is a genuine point of difference from most of the rest of the country: it falls on the first Monday in May, rather than the first Monday in October like NSW, South Australia and the ACT. Like other states, it commemorates the 19th-century eight-hour-day movement, though Queensland moved its own observance to May in the 20th century. There’s no major single public event tied to the date today – it functions as an early-winter long weekend.

Royal Queensland Show (the Ekka): 12 August

The Royal Queensland Show – almost universally known as “the Ekka,” a contraction of “Exhibition” – is Queensland’s largest annual event, held at the Brisbane Showgrounds in Bowen Hills. Its roots trace back to 1876, when the newly formed Royal National Agricultural and Industrial Association of Queensland held its first Intercolonial Exhibition at the same Bowen Hills site the show still occupies today; the “Royal” prefix was granted by King George V in 1921. The show now runs for around nine days each August, and the Wednesday of Ekka week – People’s Day – is a public holiday, but only within the Brisbane local government area. It’s the most popular single day of the show, drawing large crowds for the animal competitions, sideshow rides, fireworks and the famous strawberry sundaes.

How regional Show Day holidays actually work in QLD

This is the single biggest thing that trips up newcomers to Queensland: there is no one “Show Day” public holiday. Almost every district in the state runs its own agricultural show at a different time of year, and each one comes with its own local public holiday, gazetted separately by the relevant local council. Queensland has close to a hundred different Show Day dates across its councils in any given year – so whether you get a Show Day off, and when, depends entirely on where you live and work, not on any single statewide date.

King's Birthday in QLD: 5 October

Queensland observes the King’s Birthday on the first Monday in October – a different date to NSW, Victoria, SA, Tasmania and the ACT, which mostly observe it in June. Like the rest of the country, it marks the monarch’s official birthday rather than the actual birth date, and functions mainly as a spring long weekend with no single major public event attached to it.

Christmas and Boxing Day in QLD: 25-28 December

Christmas Day (Friday 25 December 2026) is a quiet public holiday in Queensland, with most retail, banks and government services closed. Boxing Day (Saturday 26 December 2026) falls on a weekend, so Queensland – along with most other states – adds an Additional Day public holiday on Monday 28 December. For the full history of Boxing Day, the Boxing Day Test, and Boxing Day retail sales, see our Boxing Day in Australia guide.

Getting ready for QLD's public holidays

A few practical picks for the outdoor events this calendar revolves around, from Australia Day at South Bank to Ekka week.

What's open, and what working on a public holiday means for pay

Most major retailers, banks and government offices close on QLD public holidays, though shopping centres in tourist precincts (like Surfers Paradise and the Cairns Esplanade) and CBD supermarkets commonly stay open on all but Christmas Day and Anzac Day morning. Cafes, restaurants and attractions typically continue trading, often with a surcharge.

If you work on a QLD public holiday – including a regional Show Day that applies in your area – you’re generally entitled to a penalty rate loading on top of your normal pay, with the exact rate set by your award or agreement. For a full breakdown, see our public holiday penalty rates guide.

Related guides

For the full national public holiday calendar and how other states compare, see our Australian public holidays guide and our NSW public holidays guide. We also have dedicated guides to Australia Day, Anzac Day, Easter in Australia and Boxing Day.

Frequently Asked Questions