Public holidays in Australian capital cities from 2004 to 2023

A dataset indicating which days from 2004 to 2022 are public holidays in the eight Australian capital cities (Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Darwin, Hobart, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney). The dataset is attached in both .xlsx format and .rda format.

Each observation represent a date. Variables are included for the date, year, month, day, day of the week, name of the public holiday(s), binary markers for whether a public holiday occurs in the relevant city (1 if it does, missing otherwise), the number of capital cities where a public holiday occurs for a given day, and a binary TRUE/FALSE marker indicating if all cities have a public holiday.

Part-time holidays that only occur after 5pm, in particular New Year's Eve in some cities, are excluded. No public holidays are listed as occuring on a Sunday in Adelaide. Under the Holidays Act 1910, all Sundays are nominally public holidays in South Australia. In Hobart, public holidays were included for the Royal Hobart Regatta and Royal Hobart Show but not for Easter Tuesday; Easter Tuesday is only observed by the state public sector.

The data for each city was manually collected and combined from the state and territory government webpages included in the references. For any queries regarding this dataset, please do not hesitate to contact the author: matthew.borg@adelaide.edu.au.