SA Public Holidays 2026: Full Calendar, Dates and How Adelaide Celebrates

South Australia has more public holidays than any other state in 2026 – 15 in total – including two part-day public holidays found nowhere else in Australia, and a public holiday whose official name doesn’t match the date most people actually get off. This guide covers every SA public holiday for 2026, exactly how Adelaide marks the big ones (with real locations), and the genuinely SA-only quirks that regularly confuse newcomers.

Full 2026 South Australia public holiday calendar

This is the complete list of South Australia’s gazetted public holidays for 2026 – the longest list of any state or territory.

Australia Day in South Australia: 26 January

Adelaide’s main Australia Day gathering is at Elder Park (Tarntanya Wama) on the River Torrens, where the First Nations-led “Mourning in the Morning” ceremony begins at 7.30am with a Kaurna welcome to country, a smoking ceremony, and speakers, musicians and dancers. The City of Adelaide also holds citizenship ceremonies at Adelaide Town Hall on the day, officiated by the Lord Mayor as Presiding Officer. For the full national history and debate around the date, see our Australia Day guide.

Adelaide Cup Day: 9 March

Adelaide Cup Day has been a public holiday in South Australia since 1973, falling on the second Monday of March. The race itself is much older, first run in 1864, making it the second-oldest horse race in Australia after the Melbourne Cup. It was originally run in May before moving to March in 2006 to take advantage of better weather. The race is held at Morphettville Racecourse in Adelaide’s southwestern suburbs, having moved there from its original home at Thebarton Racecourse.

Easter in South Australia: 3-6 April

South Australia observes all four Easter public holidays – Good Friday, Easter Saturday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday – the same as NSW, Victoria and Queensland. WA is the outlier that skips Easter Saturday, and Tasmania skips both Easter Saturday and Easter Sunday. For the full history of Easter in Australia and where to visit over the long weekend, see our Easter in Australia guide.

Anzac Day in South Australia: 25 April

Adelaide’s Dawn Service is held at the National War Memorial on North Terrace, at the intersection of Kintore Avenue and North Terrace, starting at 6am and following the Anzac Eve Youth Vigil held overnight at the same site. A separate Anzac Day march through the city follows later in the morning, with wreaths laid and commemorative services held at RSL sub-branches across the state throughout the day. For the full national history of Anzac Day, see our Anzac Day guide.

Remember: unlike NSW, the ACT and WA, South Australia does not add an extra public holiday because Anzac Day falls on a Saturday in 2026. For the full state-by-state comparison, see our Australian public holidays guide.

King's Birthday in South Australia: 8 June

South Australia marks King’s Birthday on the second Monday in June – 8 June 2026 – the same date as NSW, Victoria, Tasmania and the ACT. Queensland, WA and the Northern Territory observe it on different dates. It’s a quiet public holiday in SA, with no major public event tied to the day beyond official ceremonial functions.

Labour Day in South Australia: 5 October

South Australia’s Labour Day traces back to the eight-hour-day movement of the 1870s-1880s. South Australian workers won the eight-hour day through organised campaigning in 1873, and the government granted the first official 8 Hour Day holiday in 1882, first celebrated on 19 September 1883. From 1900, 1 September became the official date, before the holiday was later moved to its current spot on the first Monday in October. In 2026 that falls on Monday 5 October – the same date as NSW and the ACT, though those states’ Labour Day traditions have separate origin stories of their own (see our NSW public holidays guide for the 1855 Sydney stonemasons’ story).

Christmas, Proclamation Day and New Year in South Australia: 24-31 December

Christmas Eve (Thursday 24 December 2026) is a part-day public holiday in SA from 7pm to midnight – shops and workplaces operate normally during the day, with the public holiday loading only applying that evening. Christmas Day (Friday 25 December) is a full public holiday, as it is everywhere in Australia.

26 December is called “Proclamation Day holiday” in SA rather than Boxing Day, commemorating the same event as the actual Proclamation Day on 28 December: the formal establishment of South Australia as a British province. On 28 December 1836, Governor John Hindmarsh read the proclamation near a distinctive bent gum tree at what’s now Glenelg North, in front of around 200 settlers and local Kaurna people. The tree – now known as the Old Gum Tree – still stands in a small reserve on Macfarlane Street, and a ceremony is held there every year on the anniversary, with the Governor reading Hindmarsh’s original speech. Because 26 December falls on a Saturday in 2026, SA adds an Additional Day on Monday 28 December, which by coincidence lands exactly on the real historical anniversary.

New Year’s Eve (Thursday 31 December) is also a part-day public holiday from 7pm to midnight, mirroring Christmas Eve. For the history of Boxing Day traditions elsewhere in Australia, see our Boxing Day in Australia guide.

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

Most major retailers, banks and government offices close on South Australia’s full-day public holidays, though large shopping centres and supermarkets in the Adelaide CBD and tourist areas commonly stay open on all but Christmas Day, Good Friday and Anzac Day morning. On Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, only the 7pm-to-midnight window is affected, so most shops trade normally all day and simply close at their usual time or slightly earlier.

If you work on a South Australian public holiday – including during the 7pm-midnight part-day holidays – 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, our NSW public holidays guide, our QLD public holidays guide, our WA public holidays guide and our Victoria public holidays guide. We also have dedicated guides to Australia Day, Anzac Day, Easter in Australia and Boxing Day.

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