In brief
- Much of Australia will have a day off in celebration of the King’s Birthday on Monday.
- However, two states will mark the occasion later in the year.
Most Australians will enjoy a day off this Monday in celebration of the King’s Birthday.
However, residents of Queensland and Western Australia will have to wait a bit longer for their extended weekend.
In the ACT, New South Wales, Northern Territory, South Australia, Tasmania, and Victoria, the public holiday on June 8 marks the long weekend.
Why do some states differ?
For Queensland, the King’s Birthday holiday is scheduled for the first Monday of October, which is October 5 this year.
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The Queensland government moved the public holiday in 2015 so that public holidays would be better spread out throughout the year.
Most of Western Australia marks the public holiday on 28 September.
However, the City of Karratha and town of Port Hedland will observe it on 3 August due to the timing of local events.
Western Australia has long celebrated the monarch’s birth — previously the Queen’s Birthday — later in the year to coincide with the Perth Royal Show and to space it out from another public holiday in June.
When is the king’s actual birthday?
King Charles III was born on 14 November, 1948. His late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, was born on 21 April, 1926.
The public holiday was renamed after the queen’s death, but the dates remained the same.
The monarch’s birthday has traditionally been celebrated in June or sometimes May in the UK, so that the outdoor celebrations were more likely to coincide with better weather.
June is the first month of summer in the Northern Hemisphere.
There is typically a Saturday military parade in London called Trooping the Colour for the birthday event.
This year’s parade will be held on 13 June.
According to the British royal family’s website, the queen would typically spend her actual birthday privately.
Australia celebrates the sovereign’s birthday because Australia is a constitutional monarchy, and as head of the British Commonwealth, King Charles is Australia’s head of state.
Many other Commonwealth countries celebrate the monarch’s birthday, including New Zealand, Canada and Papua New Guinea.
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