Victorian public holidays, school terms and other important dates
liveThe data behind the Victorian Government Important Dates API, published monthly by the Department of Government Services. Each row is one date with its kind, name, description and the publisher and web page it comes from. The sources are Business Victoria, the Department of Education, the Parliament of Victoria and the Faith Communities Council of Victoria.
Also called: Victoria public holidays list, Victorian school term dates, Victorian Government Important Dates API, Parliament of Victoria sitting dates.
- What does each row hold?
- One date and what falls on it, with its kind, its name, the body the date comes from and a link to that body's page. The kinds are public holidays, school terms and school holidays, daylight saving, Parliament of Victoria sitting days and the Faith Communities Council of Victoria's multifaith calendar.
- Why does one event appear on several rows?
- An event that lasts more than a day, such as Lent or a school holiday, has a row for each day the publisher lists, and those rows share one identifier. The file also repeats some rows exactly, and they are kept as published.
- How far ahead does it go?
- The file runs from October 2018 to December 2030, but each kind is only as complete as its source. Public holidays are listed for the years Business Victoria has declared them, and a school term row may note the years its source publishes. The school holiday rows name no source body, and the publisher describes them as the days between the terms.
Made for agents
Connect your AI agent
Any agent that connects to publicdata.au/mcp can find this dataset, read its 7 fields, count and filter across all 2,894 rows and diff its versions. Every answer names the version and carries Government Services's attribution. No key.
Then ask it: What does Victorian public holidays, school terms and other important dates hold, and what changed in the newest version?
claude mcp add --transport http publicdata https://publicdata.au/mcpOne command. No key, no account, no sign-up.
Settings, then Connectors, then Add custom connector, and paste https://publicdata.au/mcp.
On the web and in the desktop app.
https://publicdata.au/mcpStreamable HTTP. Cursor, VS Code or any client that connects to a remote MCP server.
Using https://publicdata.au/llms.txt, how many people died on Queensland roads in 2025, by month?For an assistant that reads the web and has no connector.
The dashboard above, live. Click to filter, add panels, share a link or embed a frame.
Query APIFilter and count from a URLaggregate?group=date_type&metric=count
Dates by kind: 2,247 MULTI_FAITH, 333 PARLIAMENT_SITTING, 143 PUBLIC_HOLIDAY, 102 SCHOOL_TERM.
Download it as Excel, CSV, JSON and 6 more formats
Pick a format and a version. Excel is picked first because it opens in the tools most offices have. The URL is yours to keep. A dated version never changes.
In your own tools
Use it in Excel, R, Python and more
Excel and Power BI read the CSV from its address and refresh from it. The R and Python packages take any dataset on this site by its slug, so a new dataset needs no new release. The DuckDB file attaches read-only over HTTPS, and a query reads only the blocks it touches.
The dated URL in the code never changes. https://publicdata.au/d/vic-important-dates/latest/ redirects to the newest version.
https://publicdata.au/d/vic-important-dates/latest/data.csvIn Excel choose Data, then From Web, and paste this address. Excel keeps it, so Refresh All reads the newest version. A sheet holds about a million rows; past that, load the query to the Data Model.
https://publicdata.au/d/vic-important-dates/latest/data.csvIn Power BI Desktop choose Get data, then Web, paste this address and choose Anonymous when asked how to sign in. A scheduled refresh reads the same address, so the report follows each new version.
library(publicdataau)
df <- pd_read("vic-important-dates")
pd_attribution(df)install.packages("publicdataau"). pd_read() fetches the version's Parquet file; pd_rows() and pd_aggregate() ask the query API instead, and pd_connect() attaches the DuckDB file.
import publicdata_au as pd_au
df = pd_au.read("vic-important-dates")
df.attrs["publicdata"]["attribution"]pip install "publicdata-au[pandas]". read() fetches the version's Parquet file; rows() and aggregate() ask the query API, and connect() attaches the DuckDB file.
INSTALL httpfs; LOAD httpfs;
ATTACH 'https://publicdata.au/d/vic-important-dates/v/2026-08-18/data.duckdb' AS vic_important_dates (READ_ONLY);
SELECT date_type, count(*) FROM vic_important_dates.records GROUP BY 1 ORDER BY 2 DESC;The DuckDB file attaches read-only over HTTPS and only the blocks a query touches are read. Parquet works the same way: FROM read_parquet(url).
const res = await fetch("https://publicdata.au/api/v1/datasets/vic-important-dates/aggregate?group=date_type&metric=count");
const { rows, publicdata } = await res.json();
console.log(rows, publicdata.attribution);The query API answers a page on any site as well as Node, with no key. It returns the rows and the attribution the licence asks for.
What is in it
Column names are made snake_case and the publisher's original header is kept beside each one. Blank cells are null. Nothing is added, removed, ranked or summarised.
| Field | Type | Publisher's header | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| date_id | string | arun | The publisher's identifier for the event. A multi-day event repeats it on each of its rows. |
| date_type | string | dateType | PUBLIC_HOLIDAY, SCHOOL_TERM, SCHOOL_HOLIDAY, DAYLIGHT_SAVING, PARLIAMENT_SITTING or MULTI_FAITH. |
| name | string | name | |
| date | date | important_date | |
| source_body | string | publisher | The body the date comes from, as the publisher names it. |
| description | string | description | |
| source_url | string | source |
Download this table as a data dictionary (Excel), or read it as a Frictionless Table Schema at schema.json.
A sample of 10 rows
From the latest version, newest first by date, each kind of date in turn, then in the publisher's order, with every field. A blank cell is shown as null.
| date_id | date_type | name | date | source_body | description | source_url |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| null | SCHOOL_TERM | Term 4 2030 - End date | 2030-12-20 | Department of Education | null | https://www.vic.gov.au/school-term-dates-and-holidays-victoria |
| null | PUBLIC_HOLIDAY | Boxing Day | 2027-12-28 | Business Victoria | As Boxing Day falls on a Sunday, an additional public holiday is given on the following Tuesday. | https://business.vic.gov.au/business-information/public-holidays/victorian-public-holidays-2027 |
| null | MULTI_FAITH | Christmas | 2026-12-25 | Faith Communities Council of Victoria | null | http://www.faithvictoria.org.au/calendar |
| null | DAYLIGHT_SAVING | Daylight Savings Ends | 2026-04-05 | Business Victoria | Daylight Saving Time ends at 2am (3am Daylight Saving Time) on the first Sunday in April when clocks are put back one h… | https://business.vic.gov.au/business-information/daylight-saving |
| a5a46b6e-8db7-4e84-bad2-1bf87af406ae | SCHOOL_HOLIDAY | Term 4 2025 - Holiday start date | 2025-12-22 | No Source - Generated | There is no formal source for these but they are the inbetween of the dates above | null |
| null | PARLIAMENT_SITTING | Both Houses sitting | 2025-12-04 | Parliament of Victoria | null | https://parliament.vic.gov.au/parliamentary-activity/ |
| null | SCHOOL_TERM | Term 4 2030 - Start date | 2030-10-07 | Department of Education | null | https://www.vic.gov.au/school-term-dates-and-holidays-victoria |
| null | PUBLIC_HOLIDAY | Boxing Day | 2027-12-28 | Business Victoria | As Boxing Day falls on a Sunday, an additional public holiday is given on the following Tuesday. | https://business.vic.gov.au/business-information/public-holidays/victorian-public-holidays-2028 |
| null | MULTI_FAITH | Advent | 2026-12-24 | Faith Communities Council of Victoria | 29 November - 24 December 2026 | null |
| null | PARLIAMENT_SITTING | Both Houses sitting | 2025-12-03 | Parliament of Victoria | null | https://parliament.vic.gov.au/parliamentary-activity/ |
The first row as JSON
As it appears in data.json.
GET https://publicdata.au/d/vic-important-dates/latest/data.json
{
"date_id": "4430ad5c-47a1-4342-a2ac-8078e6a5d131",
"date_type": "MULTI_FAITH",
"name": "Lent",
"date": "2019-03-06",
"source_body": "Faith Communities Council of Victoria",
"description": "6 March 2019 - 18 April 2019",
"source_url": "http://www.faithvictoria.org.au/calendar"
}
Query it without downloading
The query API returns only the rows you ask for, as JSON, NDJSON or CSV, from the same typed rows as the files. It needs no key. Build a query here and run it, then copy the URL or the code into your own work.
How filters work
Each filter is field=operator.value in the query string, and every filter must match. A number or date field compares as a number or date, and a text field compares as text. Values are case-sensitive except with ilike. Prefix not. to negate a filter, as not.eq.value.
| Operator | What it matches |
|---|---|
| eq.value | Equal to the value. |
| neq.value | Not equal to the value. A blank cell does not match. |
| gt.value | Greater than the value. |
| gte.value | Greater than or equal to the value. |
| lt.value | Less than the value. |
| lte.value | Less than or equal to the value. |
| like.*text* | Matches a pattern where * stands for any run of characters. Case-sensitive. |
| ilike.*text* | The same as like, ignoring case. |
| in.(a,b,c) | Equal to any value in the list. A value cannot contain a comma. |
| is.null | Blank in the source, or suppressed by the publisher. |
| Parameter | What it does |
|---|---|
| select | Fields to return, comma-separated. Every field when absent. |
| order | field.asc or field.desc, comma-separated. The publisher's row order when absent. |
| limit | Rows per page, 1 to 10,000. 100 when absent. |
| offset | Rows to skip. The next URL in each answer sets it for you. |
| group | On aggregate, fields to group by, comma-separated. |
| metric | On aggregate, count, sum.field, avg.field, min.field or max.field, comma-separated. count when absent. |
| format | json, ndjson or csv. JSON carries the provenance header, and the others carry it in response headers. |
Without a version the API answers from the newest loaded version, and that answer changes when the publisher releases again. Put versions/<date>/ before rows or aggregate for an answer that never changes. /api/v1/datasets/<slug>/versions lists the loaded versions. The 1 newest version is loaded; versions lists them.
The API allows 60 requests in 10 seconds from one address. Above that it answers 429 for 10 seconds with a Retry-After header, a RateLimit-Policy header and a JSON body that gives the limit. Every API answer carries the same RateLimit-Policy. A client should wait the Retry-After seconds, or read the files, which have no limit. openapi.json describes this dataset's query paths for client generators and agents.
https://publicdata.au/mcp is a remote MCP server over Streamable HTTP with the same tools, defined in the same place, so a tool added to the pages is added here too. It needs no key and no account. The row tools are held to the query API's limit of 60 queries in 10 seconds from one address, and each call is two queries because it also counts the matching rows. Add it to Claude Code with claude mcp add --transport http publicdata https://publicdata.au/mcp, add the URL in Claude as a custom connector, or give it to any client that connects to remote MCP servers. Each queryable dataset is also a resource at https://publicdata.au/d/<slug>/fields.json, which lists its fields with their types, the publisher's descriptions, their ranges and the values they hold, so an agent can read a dataset's shape before it writes a query.
Smaller files
The same rows split by a field, one JSON file each. Each file carries the same provenance header.
By date_type (6 files)
by/date_type/index.json lists every file with its row count.
What changed
One version for every release the publisher has made since this site started following the dataset. The date is the day the file changed on the portal.
- 2026-08-18 2,894 rows7 fieldsutf-8-sig31dc69d74581
versions.json · changes.json · history.tar.zst (44 KB, every version's Parquet and manifest)
Questions
How do I download Victorian public holidays, school terms and other important dates as a CSV file?
Open https://publicdata.au/d/vic-important-dates/latest/data.csv. It redirects to the newest dated version, which is https://publicdata.au/d/vic-important-dates/v/2026-08-18/data.csv today. The same path serves Excel, JSON, Parquet, SQLite, DuckDB, NDJSON, Arrow. A dated URL never changes, so use it when the file must stay the same.
Can I open Victorian public holidays, school terms and other important dates in Excel?
Yes. https://publicdata.au/d/vic-important-dates/v/2026-08-18/data.xlsx is a workbook with the 2,894 rows on a records sheet, the field list on a second sheet and the provenance on a third. The CSV also opens in Excel. https://publicdata.au/d/vic-important-dates/v/2026-08-18/data.csv.gz is the CSV at about a tenth of the size.
What years does Victorian public holidays, school terms and other important dates cover?
The current version covers 2018 to 2025. Each release from Government Services becomes a new dated version here, and earlier versions stay online.
How often is Victorian public holidays, school terms and other important dates updated?
Government Services releases it monthly. This site checks the portal every week and adds a dated version when the file changes.
Can I use Victorian public holidays, school terms and other important dates commercially?
Yes. CC BY 4.0 allows commercial use, redistribution and derived works as long as the attribution is kept. The attribution string is in this page's side column and inside every file.
Is this the official source for Victorian public holidays, school terms and other important dates?
No. The publisher is Department of Government Services, and its page is https://discover.data.vic.gov.au/dataset/government-dates-api-data. This site republishes the publisher's file without changing its content. The original sits beside every version as source.csv with its SHA-256, so the two can be compared.
How do I get only the rows for one date type?
Every version has one JSON file per value of date_type, 6 files in the current version, listed with row counts at https://publicdata.au/d/vic-important-dates/v/2026-08-18/by/date_type/index.json. For example https://publicdata.au/d/vic-important-dates/v/2026-08-18/by/date_type/multi-faith.json holds the 2,247 rows where date_type is MULTI_FAITH.
What this site did to the data. Cells were typed, headers were renamed and the encoding was made UTF-8. Rows were left alone. The publisher's file sits beside every version as source.csv so the change can be checked.