Australian states and territories where Anzac Day won’t mean a day off work in 2021

Anzac Day falls on a Sunday this year, and three states have chosen not to give people the following Monday off.

Anzac Day is coming up, the day of remembrance to commemorate Australian and New Zealand veterans that usually also means a day off work for many Australians.

But because April 25 is a Sunday this year, people in three states won’t get an extra day off.

NSW, Victoria and Tasmania will not give residents an extra public holiday on the Monday after Anzac Day.

But Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, the ACT, and the Northern Territory will.

All those states and territories will make April 26, the day after Anzac Day, a public holiday this year.

Each state and territory’s public holiday rules are set out in local laws, and legislators have made differing judgments about when to give people time off.

In NSW, for example, the Public Holidays Act 2010 sets out the holidays where there will be an additional day off in the event it falls on a weekend.

A service member plays the bugle at an Anzac Day ceremony in Hobart in 2019. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

Specifically, Australia Day, New Year's Day, Christmas Day and Boxing Day all warrant an extra day off if they fall on a Saturday or a Sunday.

But the entry for Anzac Day simply reads: “Public holiday on 25 April.”

An online commonwealth list of public holidays says that some jurisdictions, like the Northern Territory and SA, will consider April 26 the public holiday instead of the day before.

Other states, like WA, consider both Sunday and Monday public holidays.

The April 25 date was chosen to commemorate a major offensive in 1915 on the Gallipoli peninsula by Australian and New Zealand Army Corps during the First World War.

The peninsula, in what today is western Turkey, was a strategic target because controlling it would mean opening up a seat route towards the capital of the Ottoman Empire, which was an enemy in the war.

Two Australian military officials pictured on the Gallipoli peninsula in December 1915.

But the troops from Down Under faced fierce resistance, and what was supposed to be a decisive battle became an eight-month stalemate.

By the time the Anzac troops were evacuated, more than 8000 Australian soldiers had been killed.

The following year, April 25 was first commemorated as Anzac Day.

Broad public interest in the Remembrance Day has ebbed and flowed throughout the decades, with a resurgence from the late 1980s and onwards.

These days it’s seen as an important opportunity to pay respects to Australians and New Zealanders who have contributed to their countries’ efforts in armed conflicts.

With last year’s ceremonies largely scuttled by coronavirus pandemic lockdowns, many Returned Services League clubs hope it will be possible to properly commemorate the day this year.