Farm Public Holidays in Victoria: Check the Location Before the November Roster

A crew may work at two farms in the same week and face different public holiday arrangements. Before issuing the November roster, check which declared holiday applies at each location. A familiar date in a shared calendar is only the start of the decision.

Start with the work location

Business Victoria lists Melbourne Cup Day as Tuesday 3 November 2026. Its 2026 calendar explains that non-metropolitan councils can arrange an alternative local holiday. The regional holiday declarations describe the areas covered; a declaration can be narrower than an entire municipality.

Use the actual farm address when reading that declaration. Record the locality as well as the council name, and check the current list again before finalising the roster. If a crew moves between sites, keep a separate entry for each site rather than copying the first farm’s holiday setting to every job.

Make a work request and allow a response

Under the national Fair Work system, an employer can request public holiday work where the request is reasonable. An employee can refuse if the request is unreasonable or their refusal is reasonable. The Fair Work Ombudsman’s guidance explains relevant circumstances, including the work, personal circumstances, employment type, notice and whether public holiday work could reasonably be expected.

A roster message should make the proposed site, hours and request clear. Give the worker a practical way to respond, particularly when a labour hire coordinator and a host supervisor are both involved. Identify who will consider the response and tell the host the outcome. Simply placing a name against a shift leaves these questions unanswered.

Separate absence pay from pay for working

Fair Work’s guidance distinguishes pay when a worker is absent on a public holiday from payment for hours actually worked. Non-casual employees may be entitled to base pay for ordinary hours they would have worked; casuals do not have the same paid-absence entitlement. The applicable award or agreement and employment type must be checked for working rates and other conditions.

Our fruit-picker pay guide provides broader pay context. For the roster in front of you, ask payroll to confirm the current instrument and classification rather than selecting a multiplier from an old spreadsheet. A holiday and a weather interruption are different payroll questions.

Send payroll the decision, not just the hours

A useful handover contains the site address, applicable holiday and date, worker employment type, proposed hours, request and response, and the award or agreement checked. Name the person resolving any uncertainty before the pay run. Keep the eventual hours worked connected to that record, as explained in our payroll records handover guide.

In a hypothetical two-site crew, one coordinator prepares separate location checks while another confirms the workers’ responses. Payroll receives both site records with the final timesheets. This makes it easier to explain a difference in treatment without treating two nearby farms as if they share every holiday declaration.

Practical first step: add a location-and-holiday column to the November roster review, and resolve it before the roster is distributed.

Sources and further reading

• Victorian public holidays 2026 — Business Victoria
• Victorian non-metropolitan public holidays 2026 — Business Victoria
• Not working on public holidays — Fair Work Ombudsman

Official sources checked on 14 October 2026. Practical examples are hypothetical.

About the author

Hari Yellina is Chief Executive Officer at Orchard Tech. His articles explain practical workforce planning for Australian agricultural businesses.

AI-generated illustration of a fictional farm office; the calendar and folders are not official records.