Australian Events and Festivals

Anzac Day, a public holiday in Australia and New Zealand, commemorates the landing at Gallipoli in 1915 of the two countries' fighting men, the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, during World War I. It is a day of remembrance of all those who served their country in times of conflict and war.

Among Australian public holidays, Australia Day is considered one of the most important as it commemorates the founding of the first white settlement in Australia in 1788. This settlement was in the Sydney area now known as The Rocks. From this today's city of Sydney, and eventually all of Australia, has grown.

The Australian Open is the first of the world's four Grand Slam tennis tournaments during the year. Australian Open tennis matches are played at Melbourne Park in January and finishes around Australia Day.

In a country where Christmas takes place in the summer, it seemed only a matter of time before people started enjoying the spirit and the trappings of Christmas in the middle of the Australian year — which is when it's winter in Australia. So they celebrate Yuletide in the Blue Mountains in the winter months instead of, or in addition to, December.

In the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, an easy, pleasant drive from Sydney, springtime is tulip time. It is, of course, when the Bowral Tulip Time Festival takes place. The annual Bowral event features planting of up to 100,000 tulip bulbs, centred on Corbett Gardens. There will also be a large number of Open Gardens to visit.

Boxing Day, a national public holiday in Australia and New Zealand, is celebrated yearly on December 26, a day after Christmas Day. It is also the day the perilous Sydney  Hobart Yacht Race begins. No, it has nothing to do with two gloved men sparring on a canvas square ringed by ropes and trying to knock each other out.

Canberra Day, a public holiday in the Australian Capital Territory, takes place on the second Monday in March. It commemorates the official naming of Canberra on March 12, 1913, by Lady Denham, wife of the then Australian Governor-General Lord Denham (Thomas Denham, Third Baron).

Canberra in the early autumn is when the Canberra Festival, which encompasses Canberra Day, takes place. A colorful feature of the Canberra Festival is the flight of hot air balloons which traditionally take to the air from the grounds of Old Parliament House.

The Floriade flower festival in Australia's capital city is an annual festival redolent with the scents, sounds and sights of the Canberra spring with vast expanses of flowering bulbs and various other blooming plants in parkland beside the waters of Lake Burley Griffin.

Every year on a weekend in May the uniquely-named town of 1770 on the central Queensland coast commemorates the first landing in Queensland of Captain James Cook and his ship, the Endeavour, with a festival that celebrates the historical event with a variety of activities.