About Australia (Travel Information)
Opening Hours, Holidays & Festivals
Shops and services are generally open Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm and until lunchtime on Saturday. In cities and larger towns, many shops stay open late on Thursday or Friday evening – usually until 9pm – and all day Saturday.

In remote country areas roadhouses provide all the essential services for a traveller and, on the major highways, are open 18 or even 24 hours a day. In tourist areas – even ones well off the beaten track – tourist offices are often open every day or at least through the week plus weekend mornings; urban information centres are more likely to conform to normal shopping hours.

Tourist attractions – museums, galleries and attended historic monuments – are often open daily, although rural communities may often have erratic opening hours – particularly in the north during the tropical Wet; specific opening hours are given throughout the guide.

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Holidays
Contrary to popular opinion and Australia’s commendably relaxed interpretation of the work ethic, there are surprisingly few nationwide public holidays – and even when you add in the state ones (two or three per state, about eight in the Northern Territory), Australia lags behind most European countries in having official days off.

Watch out for school holidays, when seaside resorts can be transformed into bucket-and-spade war zones and the roads are jammed with station wagons full of holidaying families. Dates vary from year to year and state to state, but generally people are on the move for six weeks from mid-December (January is worst, as many people stay home until after Christmas), two weeks around Easter, and another couple of weeks in June or July.

National Holidays
In addition to the holidays listed below, every state has its own bank holidays – generally two or three a year, or more. When the official holidays fall at the weekend, there may be an extra day off immediately before or after, and these can again vary from state to state.
  • New Year’s Day
  • Australia Day
  • (January 26 or Monday following)
  • Good Friday
  • Easter Monday
  • Anzac Day (April 25)
  • Christmas Day
  • Boxing Day

Festivals & Events
The nationwide selection of festivals listed all include, necessitate, and are in some cases the imaginative product of, prolonged beer-swilling. Why else would you drive to the edge of the Simpson Desert to watch a horse race? Also, all cities and towns have their own agricultural festivals (“shows”) which are high points of the local calendar.

More seriously, each mainland capital tries to elevate its sophistication quotient with a regular celebration and showcase of art and culture, of which the biennial Adelaide Arts Festival is the best known.

Besides the major events, there’s a host of smaller, local events many of which are detailed throughout the guide. The Christmas and Easter holiday periods, especially, are marked by celebrations at every turn, all over the country.

  • January
    • Festival of Sydney, NSW. A month of festivities, with something for absolutely everyone.
    • Montsalvat Jazz Festival, Eltham, VIC. Australia's premier jazz festival, which takes place on the Montsalvat Estate over Australia Day weekend; book well ahead.
    • Tamworth Country Music Festival, Tamworth, NSW. A week of Slim Dusty and his ilk, culminating in the Australian Country Music Awards.
  • February
    • Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, NSW. Sydney's proud gay community's festival begins at the end of February and lasts three weeks, ending with an extravagant parade and an all-night dance party.
    • Festival of Perth, WA. A month of "low-brow arts" at venues all over the city.
    • Bindoon Rock Festival, Bindoon, WA. WA's answer to Woodstock or Reading, with some visiting overseas bands.
  • March
    • Adelaide Arts Festival, SA. The country's best-known and most innovative arts festival (biennial, in even years); not to be missed.
    • Melbourne Moomba Festival, VIC. Eleven days of partying, beginning and ending with fireworks and lots of fun in between.
  • April
    • Barossa Valley Vintage Festival, SA. Biennial (odd years) Germanic festival set in the country's viticultural heart.
    • Melbourne International Comedy Festival, VIC. Opening on April Fools' Day, comics from around the world gather for three weeks.
  • May
    • Bangtail Muster, Alice Springs, NT. Nutty parades and Outback silliness.
  • June
    • Melbourne International Film Festival, VIC. The country's largest and most prestigious film festival, lasting two weeks.
    • Sydney International Film Festival, NSW. Also an important film festival, running for over two weeks in June and based at the glorious State Theatre.
    • Barunga Sports Festival, Beswick Aboriginal Land, NT. A rare and enjoyable chance to encounter Aboriginal culture in the NT. No alcohol.
    • Cape York Aboriginal Dance Festival, QLD. Three-day, alcohol-free celebration of authentic Aboriginal culture. Biennial in odd-numbered years.
  • July
    • Camel Cup, Alice Springs, NT. Camel-racing down the dry Todd River.
    • Darwin Beer Can Regatta, NT. Mindil Beach is the venue for the recycling of copious empties into a variety of nutty seacraft. Also a thong-throwing contest; Territorian eccentricity personified.
  • August
    • Shinju Matsuri Festival, Broome, WA. Probably the most remote big festival, which doesn't stop the town being packed for this Oriental-themed pearl festival.
    • Mount Isa Rodeo, Mount Isa, QLD. Australia's largest rodeo - a gritty, down-to-earth encounter with bulls, horses and their riders.
  • September
    • Bathurst 1000 Road Races, Bathurst, NSW. Australia's premier weekend of car and bike street racing.
    • Birdsville Races, QLD. Once a year the remote Outback town of Birdsville (population 120) comes alive for a weekend of drinking and horse-racing - a well-known and definitive Australian oddity.
    • Warana, Brisbane, QLD. Huge, two-week arts festival centred in the city's Botanic Gardens with food, wine, beer, music, writing and children's events topped off with fireworks and a wacky Concours de Decadence.
    • Melbourne International Festival of the Arts, VIC. Two-week celebration of visual, performing and written arts in venues all over the city.
  • October
    • Henley-on-Todd Regatta, Alice Springs, NT. Wacky races in bottomless boats running down the dry Todd riverbed; the event is heavily insured against the river actually flowing.
    • Manly Jazz Festival, Sydney, NSW. Three-day jazz festival with artists from all over the world.
  • November
    • Australian Grand Prix, Melbourne, VIC. Formula One street-racing which follows a week of partying; formerly held in Adelaide, now relocated to Albert Park in Melbourne.
    • Melbourne Cup, Flemington Racecourse, VIC. 130-year-old horse race which brings the entire country to a standstill around the radio or TV.
  • December
    • Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, Sydney, NSW. Crowds flock to the harbour to witness the start of this classic regatta which departs Sydney on Boxing Day and arrives in Hobart three days later.
    • The Christmas holidays and New Year's Eve are celebrated with gusto everywhere.