New South Wales gets seven weeks off. Victoria gets five and a half. Same country, same season, nearly two weeks apart, and nobody warns you about that until you’ve already tried to plan something around it.
I found this out the annoying way, trying to line up a week at my parents’ place with when my nephew’s actually off school. Turns out “summer holidays” isn’t one date range you can just assume applies everywhere. Every state runs its own calendar, and December through February is where that actually costs you something, not just an inconvenience like the two-week gaps during the year.
Here’s what it actually looks like this time round.
NSW and Tasmania are tied for the longest break, both running to early February. Not by accident either, they’ve consistently been the two that stretch furthest into the new year. Victoria, on the other hand, is done by the 26th of January, and that one genuinely surprised me given Victorian terms usually run longer than everyone else’s the rest of the year. Apparently that doesn’t carry over to summer.
Queensland, South Australia and the Northern Territory all land in roughly the same spot, back by the 26th of January too, though the NT breaks up earliest of anyone, mid-December, presumably because nobody’s keen on Territory heat lasting into a school day any longer than it has to. WA runs a few days past that cluster, through to the end of January. ACT sits close to NSW but isn’t identical, so if you’re in Canberra assuming you’re on Sydney time, you’re a day or two off.
| State/Territory | Summer holidays | Roughly |
|---|---|---|
| New South Wales | 18 Dec 2026 – 3 Feb 2027 | 7 weeks |
| Tasmania | 19 Dec 2026 – 3 Feb 2027 | 7 weeks |
| Western Australia | 18 Dec 2026 – 31 Jan 2027 | 6.5 weeks |
| ACT | 19 Dec 2026 – 1 Feb 2027 | 6.5 weeks |
| Queensland | 12 Dec 2026 – 26 Jan 2027 | 6.5 weeks |
| South Australia | 12 Dec 2026 – 26 Jan 2027 | 6.5 weeks |
| Northern Territory | 11 Dec 2026 – 26 Jan 2027 | 6.5 weeks |
| Victoria | 19 Dec 2026 – 26 Jan 2027 | 5.5 weeks |
Dates via Tourism Australia’s official school holiday calendar, sourced from each state’s education department. These are government school dates. Catholic and independent schools aren’t always on the same ones. Worth a quick look at your own school’s calendar before booking anything.
University runs on a completely different clock. Semester two finishes mid-to-late November. Semester one doesn’t start again until late February. Do the maths and that’s twelve, maybe fourteen weeks. Some universities squeeze in a summer term for students wanting to get ahead, but it’s a separate enrolment, separate fees, so ring the university if that’s on the cards rather than guessing.
Six or seven weeks is still a lot to fill. I don’t know a single working parent who’s cracked it perfectly, but most end up somewhere similar anyway. A stretch of nothing planned at the start. Vacation care or paid activities holding the middle together because someone still has to go to work. Then a week easing back into bedtimes before term starts again.
Cost’s usually the sticking point on that middle bit. Our vacation care costs guide has the real numbers by state. Leave running short instead? Here’s how to stretch it around public holidays, state by state. And the activities directory is searchable by suburb for whatever’s actually on near you.
Term dates come out months ahead. Doesn’t stop half of us leaving the leave request until December anyway.
Want the whole year, not just summer? Our NSW, Victoria, WA, SA and ACT pages break down every term, or the 2026 hub puts every state next to each other.
These are 2026–27 government school and university dates. They shift a little most years, so check current term dates before you lock in leave or flights.