My cousin in Perth text me the week Term 1 started this year. “Is it just me, or did we only just go back?” WA kids were back on 2 February, and by the time she sent that, the autumn holidays were already the main topic at pickup.
She wasn’t wrong to notice. The shortest school term in Australia in 2026 is Term 1 in New South Wales and Western Australia, running from Monday 2 February to Thursday 2 April, about 60 days, or eight and a half weeks. Nowhere else comes close to that short. Most other states sit at nine and a half to eleven weeks per term.
Term lengths by state, 2026
Calculated from each state’s actual start and end dates, not the rounded “10 weeks” figure some department calendars display. Figures below are calendar-day spans (start to end date, inclusive of weekends), not a count of school days.
| State | Shortest term | Dates | Length (calendar days) |
|---|---|---|---|
| NSW | Term 1 | 2 Feb – 2 Apr | 60 days |
| WA | Term 1 | 2 Feb – 2 Apr | 60 days |
| SA | Term 4 | 12 Oct – 11 Dec | 61 days |
| NT | Term 1 | 29 Jan – 2 Apr | 64 days |
| VIC | Term 1 | 28 Jan – 2 Apr | 65 days |
| QLD | Term 1 | 27 Jan – 2 Apr | 66 days |
| NSW | Term 4 | 13 Oct – 17 Dec | 66 days |
Every other term across every state falls between 67 and 75 days. It’s a tighter cluster at the bottom than the “NSW and WA vs everyone else” framing suggests — NT and VIC’s Term 1 aren’t far behind.
Full 2026 term and holiday dates for every state
Why NSW and WA’s Term 1 is so short
NSW and WA both go back on 2 February, later than the eastern states that start in late January. But Term 1 still has to stop for Easter, and Easter falls in early April this year (Good Friday, 3 April). Later start, same finish line everyone’s racing toward, less term in the middle.
If you’re in the Western Division of NSW it’s shorter again — those schools go back a week later than that, on 9 February. Full NSW term dates here, WA’s are here.
I don’t think most parents clock this as a fact so much as a feeling. You just get the sense Term 1 flew by, that you’d barely got the shoes and uniform sorted before the holidays rolled round again.
South Australia’s close second
South Australia has its own version of this at the other end of the year. Term 4 starts around the same time as most states, but SA breaks up for Christmas on 11 December, nearly a week before NSW and WA finish on the 17th. SA’s Term 1 also runs longer than most states’, so it may simply be a case of the calendar balancing out over the year rather than anything specific to Term 4 itself — that part I haven’t been able to confirm against an official explanation.
on.
Queensland and the NT’s own calendars round their terms to “10 weeks” flat, but the actual dates land a few days short of that — QLD closer to nine and a half weeks, NT a little shorter again at just over nine weeks.
Why this actually matters if you’re planning anything
This is the bit that actually trips people up: my cousin’s kids finish their short Term 1 and are straight into holidays while everyone else still has a fortnight of school left. If you’re trying to organise something with family interstate, don’t assume the timing lines up just because it’s “the school holidays.” Check the actual dates for both states.
For the full term and holiday breakdown for your own state, they’re all listed here.