2026 calendar

The 2026 calendar year opens on a Thursday, which puts New Year's Day inside the working week rather than stretching it into a long weekend. Australia Day makes up for it: 26 January falls on a Monday, handing the country a genuine three-day break in the thick of the summer holidays, while schools are still closed and the Australian Open is winding up in Melbourne. With the year starting on a Thursday, the first full working week does not begin until 5 January, which is worth remembering when planning January leave around the school holiday period before Term 1 gets under way in late January or early February.

Easter comes early in 2026. Good Friday falls on 3 April and Easter Monday on 6 April, so the four-day break sits neatly inside a single week rather than bleeding into the one either side of it. ANZAC Day is less generous: 25 April lands on a Saturday, and because the date already sits inside the weekend, most workers do not pick up a substitute day off in states that only shift the holiday when it clashes with Christmas or Boxing Day. Daylight saving ends on 5 April in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT, so clocks go back the same weekend Easter wraps up.

Winter brings a mid-year long weekend on 8 June, when King's Birthday falls on the second Monday of June in most states, just as the ski season opens across the Snowy Mountains and the Victorian Alps. The end of the financial year on 30 June brings the usual round of EOFY sales and paperwork before the new tax year begins on 1 July. Spring lifts the mood with the Melbourne Cup running on Tuesday 3 November, AFL and NRL finals wrapping up in the weeks before, and Remembrance Day falling on a Wednesday, so the 11am silence on 11 November lands in the middle of an ordinary working week.

Christmas Day falls on a Friday and Boxing Day on a Saturday, lining up a long stretch from Christmas Eve straight through the weekend for anyone who also takes the following Monday off. The Boxing Day Test and the start of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race both land on that Saturday. With 365 days on the calendar and no leap day to account for, 2026 keeps a fairly even spread of long weekends from the Australia Day break in January through to the silly season in December, without the extra day that leap years add to the count.