Easter Leave Hack: 10 Days Using Only 3

April 2026 is a gift for anyone who plans their leave properly. You've got two separate long weekends packed into a single month — and with a bit of strategy, you can turn them into one massive break.

Here's what's happening:

• Good Friday: Friday 3 April (public holiday, all states)
• Easter Saturday: Saturday 4 April (public holiday in all states except TAS and WA)
• Easter Sunday: Sunday 5 April
• Easter Monday: Monday 6 April (public holiday, all states)
• Anzac Day: Saturday 25 April — but because it falls on a Saturday, most states observe a substitute public holiday on Monday 27 April

Two long weekends. One month. And the gap between them is where the magic happens.

This is the play. You take 3 days of annual leave and get 10 consecutive days off. Here's exactly what to book:

• Tuesday 7 April — annual leave
• Wednesday 8 April — annual leave
• Thursday 9 April — annual leave

That gives you this unbroken stretch:

Date	Day	Type
Fri 3 April	Friday	Good Friday (public holiday)
Sat 4 April	Saturday	Easter Saturday / weekend
Sun 5 April	Sunday	Weekend
Mon 6 April	Monday	Easter Monday (public holiday)
Tue 7 April	Tuesday	Annual leave
Wed 8 April	Wednesday	Annual leave
Thu 9 April	Thursday	Annual leave
Fri 10 April	Friday	Normal weekend starts
Sat 11 April	Saturday	Weekend
Sun 12 April	Sunday	Weekend

10 days off. 3 leave days used. That's a 3.3x return on your annual leave — the best ratio you'll get all year.

Pro tip: put this request in now. Your coworkers have probably already spotted this one.

If you can stretch it further, April 2026 gets even better. Take 4 additional days off in the week before Anzac Day:

• Tuesday 21 April — annual leave
• Wednesday 22 April — annual leave
• Thursday 23 April — annual leave
• Friday 24 April — annual leave

Combined with the Anzac Day long weekend (Sat 25 + Sun 26 + substitute Mon 27 April), you now have 16 days off using just 7 leave days total.

That's more than two full weeks — enough for an international trip, a proper road trip, or just a real reset. Most full-time workers get 20 annual leave days per year. This block uses just over a third of your yearly allowance for more than two weeks off.

Short answer: yes, but only on reasonable business grounds.

Under the National Employment Standards (section 88 of the Fair Work Act), your employer can refuse a request for annual leave — but they must do so in writing and the refusal must be based on genuine operational needs. "We don't like it" doesn't cut it.

What counts as reasonable grounds:

• The leave period falls during a genuinely critical business period
• Multiple team members have already been approved for the same dates
• Your role is essential and there's no available cover

What doesn't count:

• A blanket "no leave in April" policy with no specific reason
• Verbal refusal without putting it in writing
• Refusing because you're a casual who's been "converted" — you still get your accrued leave

If you give at least 2 weeks' notice (which is standard for short leave periods), refusal becomes much harder to justify. Put your request in writing — email, not a verbal chat — so there's a paper trail.

Use our Leave Entitlements Calculator to check exactly how many annual leave days you've accrued.

Part-time workers get annual leave on a pro-rata basis. If you work 3 days a week, you accrue 3/5 of the full-time entitlement — that's 12 days of annual leave per year instead of 20. You can still use this Easter hack, but check your balance first.

Casual workers don't get paid annual leave — that's the trade-off for the 25% casual loading on your hourly rate. But if you're a casual and you work on a public holiday, you're entitled to penalty rates. Under most awards, that's 225% of your base rate for working on Good Friday or Easter Monday.

So if you're a casual earning $28/hour base, working Easter Monday pays you $63/hour. Not a bad consolation prize.

Use the Casual Loading Calculator to see your total hourly rate including loading and any applicable penalties.

Not every state treats Easter the same. The key differences are below:

Holiday	States where it's a PH	Notes
Good Friday (3 April)	All states and territories	Universal public holiday
Easter Saturday (4 April)	All except TAS and WA	TAS and WA treat it as a normal Saturday
Easter Sunday (5 April)	ACT, NSW, QLD, SA	Not a PH in VIC, TAS, WA, NT
Easter Monday (6 April)	All states and territories	Universal public holiday
Easter Tuesday (7 April)	TAS only	Tasmania gets an extra day — lucky them
Anzac Day sub (27 April)	Most states	Because Anzac Day falls on Saturday, substitute Monday applies in most jurisdictions

If you're in Tasmania: Easter Tuesday (7 April) is already a public holiday, so you only need to book 2 days of leave (Wednesday 8 and Thursday 9) for the 10-day break. Even better.

Check your exact public holiday penalty rates with our Public Holiday Rates Calculator.