Maximise Your Annual Leave
Find the best days to book so your leave stretches further around weekends and public holidays. Free, private, and built for every Australian state and territory.
Plan Your Leave
Choose your strategy, pick your state, and tell us how many leave days you have. We will find the most efficient dates to book from now through to the end of the available calendar.
How the Aussie Leave Calculator Works
The core idea is simple: weekends and public holidays are free days off that you already get. When a public holiday falls on a Thursday or a Monday, a single leave day can bridge the gap to the weekend, turning one day of leave into a four- or five-day break.
This calculator automates that thinking across your entire planning window. It scans all the weekends and public holidays for your state or territory, identifies every gap of one to five working days between clusters of non-working days, and calculates exactly how many leave days you would need to bridge each gap.
Each potential leave block gets an efficiency score: the ratio of total days off to leave days used. A block where you spend three leave days but get nine days off scores 3.0× efficiency. The calculator then selects the best non-overlapping combination of blocks that fits within your available leave budget, weighted by your chosen strategy.
The Four Strategies
Maximum Days Off prioritises raw efficiency. It picks the blocks where each leave day produces the most additional days off, giving you the highest total time away from work.
Longest Break favours fewer, longer holidays. It weights block length more heavily, so you get extended breaks rather than many short ones — ideal if you are planning an overseas trip or a proper reset.
Balanced Year spreads your breaks across different seasons, with a slight bonus for popular travel periods like Easter, the Christmas–New Year window, and the June–July school holidays.
Long Weekends is perfect if you prefer regular short breaks. It favours blocks that need only one or two leave days, giving you frequent three- and four-day weekends throughout the year.
School Holiday Awareness
Toggle on Consider school holidays and the calculator will prioritise leave blocks that overlap with your state's school holiday periods. The tool uses official government school term dates for 2026–2027 across all eight jurisdictions. This is ideal for parents who want breaks when the kids are off school.
Planning Across the Year Boundary
Unlike calculators that force you to plan one calendar year at a time, this tool plans forward from today across the full available window — including the Christmas and New Year period that spans December into January. One plan, one view, covering everything ahead of you.
Best Times to Use Annual Leave in Australia
Easter
Easter is consistently the best leave opportunity in Australia. Good Friday and Easter Monday are national holidays, giving you a four-day weekend without using any leave. Add the Tuesday to Thursday after Easter Monday (three leave days) and you get ten consecutive days off.
Christmas and New Year
Christmas Day and Boxing Day are national holidays, and New Year's Day follows a week later. Depending on which days they fall, three to four leave days in late December can produce an unbroken break of ten or more days. Many workplaces have shutdown periods over this time.
Australia Day and Anzac Day
Australia Day (26 January) and Anzac Day (25 April) each create long-weekend opportunities. When they fall mid-week, a day or two of leave can bridge to the nearest weekend.
King's Birthday
The King's Birthday public holiday falls on a Monday in most states, always creating a ready-made long weekend. One or two leave days on the Tuesday and Wednesday can extend it further.
State-Specific Gems
Some states have holidays that create unique bridging opportunities. Queensland's Royal Queensland Show (Ekka) in August gives Brisbane workers an extra mid-week holiday. Victoria's Melbourne Cup Day in November does the same for Melburnians. Tasmania's Recreation Day, the ACT's Canberra Day and Reconciliation Day, and South Australia's Adelaide Cup and Proclamation Day all offer similar chances.
Public Holidays Vary by State and Territory
Australia has eight national public holidays, but each state and territory also observes its own additional holidays. Some holidays are observed on different dates in different jurisdictions, and a few are specific to particular regions within a state.
New South Wales
Observes Bank Holiday (not all workers) and has the standard national holiday set. Labour Day is the first Monday in October.
Victoria
Melbourne Cup Day (first Tuesday in November) is a public holiday for the Melbourne metropolitan area. AFL Grand Final Friday may also be declared. Labour Day is the second Monday in March.
Queensland
Royal Queensland Show (Ekka) is observed in the Brisbane area, typically in August. Labour Day is the first Monday in May. King's Birthday is observed in late October.
Western Australia
WA has unique timing for several holidays. King's Birthday is in late September, and the Royal Show holiday falls in late September or early October. Labour Day is the first Monday in March.
South Australia
Adelaide Cup (second Monday in March) and Proclamation Day (24 December) are additional public holidays.
Tasmania
Recreation Day (first Monday in November) is observed in northern Tasmania. Royal Hobart Regatta (second Monday in February) is observed in southern Tasmania.
ACT
Canberra Day (second Monday in March), Reconciliation Day (27 May or nearest Monday), and Family & Community Day are territory-specific holidays.
Northern Territory
May Day (first Monday in May), Show Day (varies by region), and Picnic Day (first Monday in August) provide additional opportunities.
Frequently Asked Questions
Public Holiday Data Sources
All public holiday dates are sourced from official government websites. School term dates are sourced from state education departments. We check these sources periodically and recommend you verify dates before booking travel.
| Jurisdiction | Source | Last Verified |
|---|---|---|
| National | Fair Work Ombudsman | June 2026 |
| ACT | ACT Government | June 2026 |
| NSW | NSW Government | June 2026 |
| NT | NT Government | June 2026 |
| QLD | QLD Government | June 2026 |
| SA | SafeWork SA | June 2026 |
| TAS | WorkSafe Tasmania | June 2026 |
| VIC | Business Victoria | June 2026 |
| WA | WA Government | June 2026 |
Before You Book
This tool is a planning guide only. Public holidays, workplace shutdowns, roster rules, enterprise agreements, and award conditions can vary. Some holidays are regional and some dates may be subject to official confirmation.
Always confirm leave dates with your employer or HR system before booking travel. This site does not provide legal, financial, or employment advice. For official information about your leave entitlements, visit the Fair Work Ombudsman.
Privacy: All calculations happen in your browser. Nothing is sent to a server and nothing is stored.