Christmas Eve is a part-day public holiday from 6pm in Queensland and from 7pm in South Australia and the Northern Territory. South Australia and the Northern Territory also observe a part-day public holiday from 7pm on New Year's Eve.
These declarations apply only to the stated evening hours. The calculator therefore keeps 24 and 31 December in an ordinary whole-day count. Employment entitlements during the declared hours must be considered separately.
The hours in each jurisdiction
| Jurisdiction | Christmas Eve, 24 December | New Year's Eve, 31 December |
|---|---|---|
| Queensland | 6pm to midnight | No part-day holiday |
| South Australia | 7pm to midnight | 7pm to midnight |
| Northern Territory | 7pm to midnight | 7pm to midnight |
| ACT, NSW, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia | No part-day holiday | No part-day holiday |
Queensland's holiday starts an hour earlier and applies only on Christmas Eve. Section 2 of the Holidays Act 1983 also limits the declaration to calculating entitlements under the employment and portable long-service-leave laws named in that section.
South Australia's current rule is section 4 of the Public Holidays Act 2023. It replaced the old Holidays Act 1910 from 1 January 2024. In the Northern Territory, the dates and hours appear in Schedule 2 of the Public Holidays Act 1981.
What the evening hours mean for employees
During the declared hours, the National Employment Standards rules for public holidays can apply. An employee may be absent. An employer may make a reasonable request that the employee work, and the employee may refuse if the refusal is reasonable.
There is no single penalty rate for all employees. Fair Work says many awards provide a penalty rate for public-holiday work, but the rate and any minimum engagement depend on the award or registered agreement. An employment contract may provide additional benefits.
For example, a South Australian shift from 5pm to 10pm crosses the part-day boundary:
- 5pm to 7pm is before the part-day public holiday;
- 7pm to 10pm falls within it; and
- the award or agreement determines the payment for each part of the shift.
The example identifies the hours covered by the declaration. The applicable award, agreement or contract determines the employee's payment for those hours.
Why the calculator keeps the date in the count
The calculator works with whole dates. It cannot exclude only the hours after 6pm or 7pm, so the ordinary Australian working-day calendar leaves 24 and 31 December in the count unless a full-day holiday, weekend or selected shutdown also applies.
That treatment also matches the general statutory time-counting rules in South Australia and the Northern Territory:
- Section 46 of South Australia's Legislation Interpretation Act 2021 says that an exclusion for a public holiday does not extend to a part-day public holiday unless the legislation expressly says otherwise.
- Section 28(2) of the Northern Territory's Interpretation Act 1978 excludes a public holiday that is only part of a day from its general last-day extension.
- Queensland's part-day declaration is expressly limited to the entitlements listed in section 2(4) of its Holidays Act 1983.
These provisions explain the calculator's general whole-day treatment. A contract, court rule or statute may define a business day differently or deal with a part-day holiday expressly. That wording governs the particular period.
The same treatment applies to a local part-day holiday. Warracknabeal's 2026 arrangement consists of two public half-holidays, both from noon: 8 October and Melbourne Cup Day on 3 November. Selecting the Warracknabeal district profile removes the full-day Melbourne Cup holiday, but both half-holiday dates remain in an ordinary whole-day count. The Melbourne Cup guide lists the Victorian local alternatives.
Worked example: a count spanning both part-day dates
Suppose a five-working-day period starts on Wednesday 23 December 2026. The start date is excluded. The calculator produces the same result for Queensland, South Australia and the Northern Territory:
| Date | Treatment |
|---|---|
| Thu 24 Dec | Working day 1, although the evening is a part-day holiday |
| Fri 25 Dec | Christmas Day, excluded |
| Sat 26–Sun 27 Dec | Weekend, excluded |
| Mon 28 Dec | Boxing Day or Proclamation Day observed holiday, excluded |
| Tue 29 Dec | Working day 2 |
| Wed 30 Dec | Working day 3 |
| Thu 31 Dec | Working day 4 in SA and NT despite the evening part-day holiday |
| Fri 1 Jan | New Year's Day, excluded |
| Sat 2–Sun 3 Jan | Weekend, excluded |
| Mon 4 Jan | Working day 5 |
The calculated end date is Monday 4 January 2027. Thursday 24 December counts as day 1 in all three jurisdictions. Thursday 31 December also counts as day 4 in South Australia and the Northern Territory, even though its final five hours are a public holiday. The whole-day result does not remove the employment rules that apply during those evening hours.
A deadline with a time of day needs separate treatment
The public-holiday start time does not define "close of business on 24 December". A contract, procedural rule, filing system or established business practice may set a different time.
The same problem arises where an electronic filing system accepts documents after an office closes. A date calculator can identify the date, but not the permitted filing channel or cut-off time.
Where a deadline has a time as well as a date, identify the wording that creates the deadline and any definition of business day, working day or public holiday. The office or electronic filing cut-off and the applicable time zone may also be relevant. These inputs are not supplied by the part-day holiday calendar.
What the calculator shows
The calculator uses the part-day dates in two different ways:
- They appear as informational calendar events for QLD, SA and NT, with the relevant evening hours.
- They are not inserted into the full-day public-holiday layer, so they remain in an ordinary working-day count.
This keeps the date count and the evening declaration visible without treating the whole day as closed. The relevant award or agreement supplies the employment consequences. A filing rule or contract supplies any separate time-of-day consequence.
Sources and verification
Sources checked on 4 August 2026.
- Queensland Government: Public holidays, the 6pm-to-midnight Christmas Eve declaration.
- Queensland legislation: Holidays Act 1983, section 2(3)–(4) and the limited purposes of the part-day holiday.
- SafeWork SA: Public holidays, current dates, hours and employment guidance.
- South Australian legislation: Public Holidays Act 2023, section 4 part-day holidays.
- South Australian legislation: Legislation Interpretation Act 2021, section 46 treatment in statutory time periods.
- NT Government: Public and regional holidays, 2026 and 2027 dates and hours.
- Northern Territory legislation: Public Holidays Act 1981, Schedule 2 dates and hours.
- Northern Territory legislation: Interpretation Act 1978, section 28(2) last-day treatment.
- Fair Work Ombudsman: Public holidays, National Employment Standards and state-specific dates.
- Fair Work Ombudsman: Working for part of a public holiday, award-dependent payment for hours worked.
- Victoria Government Gazette G24, 11 June 2026, the two Warracknabeal public half-holidays for 2026.
