Australia at Easter [Is much closed?]

[FatherOfFour]

Planning a multi-centre holiday for Easter ’24. We’re likely to arrive on Good Friday/Easter Saturday. We haven’t locked in the order of “cities” yet, though the current plan is LHR-SYD-OOL-MEL-LHR. However, appreciate anybody’s general experience about which Sydney tourist attractions might be “out” over the Easter weekend. I assumed most things would be open- and they seem to be in Gold Coast, but not sure about Sydney.
TIA

[louie]

Easter weekend is Easter school holidays in Oz as well as the UK – everything will be open and will be rammed (and expensive, sad to say).

If it interests you, the Royal Easter Show will be on – https://www.eastershow.com.au/. Country shows (OK, this is the big city version) are very popular; a unique slice of Aussie life. I’ve not been to the Royal Easter Show yet (will be this year) but I’ve been to plenty of smaller rural versions and absolutely love them.

Nice time of year weather-wise usually. If the airline you are planning to go with flies in/out of Brisbane, you might consider starting or ending in the Gold Coast to avoid backtracking, though it’s no big deal. Also I’d go Sunshine Coast rather than Gold Coast, personally.

[QFFlyer]

Everything will not be open, Good Friday especially a lot (and I mean a lot) of places close. Gold Coast for example, there’ll be a few places to go and eat but it’ll be sit down food only, as in you won’t be able to go to many pubs just to drink.
The Saturday and Sunday are also official public holidays (and the Tuesday in Tassie).

So yes you’ll be able to go and do things, but expect options to be limited and prices to be high.

Think of it like Christmas (to a point) – Good Friday is a restricted trading day, like Xmas Day and ANZAC Day (until the afternoon). The Saturday onwards will be easier.

[Gagravarr]

Expect a lot of the food/drink places that are open to charge extra. Pretty typical to see signs up saying “Public Holiday Surcharge x%” in cafes and restaurants, often 15% but could be higher. (Their staff will be on 2-2.5x normal pay!)

[FatherOfFour]

Thanks all for the advice.
It was actually the hotel stating their bar was only open 6 days per week (less public holidays) that made me realise they may not be universally open.
As long as we don’t arrive and be unable to do anything for 3 days, I’m happy.
Will busses run in Sydney on public holidays? We can see sights such as the bridge without them needing to be “open”.

[Lyn]

I would expect buses to run, but on a reduced public holiday schedule. You can see a lot of Sydney from the public ferries as well. You should be able to find schedules etc. for this Easter at https://transportnsw.info/ as well as useful public transport maps.

[louie]

I think maybe QFFlyer and I are answering different questions. FatherOfFour asked which “Sydney tourist attractions might be “out” over the Easter weekend”. I don’t know of any major tourist attractions which won’t be open – and I checked half a dozen before answering as I keep away from tourist attractions myself over the school holidays. Here’s a Sydney.com article with suggestions for activities for this Easter – https://www.sydney.com/travel-information/public-holidays/easter.

On the other hand, yes, quite a few cafes and maybe bars will be closed or run short hours, particularly those outside touristy areas. Australia’s labour laws are stuck in the 1960’s and require mandated multiples of salary to be paid to staff on public holidays (and normal Sundays to a lesser extent) which means many places cannot make a profit on public holidays, with the lose-lose-lose consequence that employees don’t get to work at all, employers make a loss on their fixed costs and customers get less choice of venues. And as advised above, those that open will probably charge 15% extra. The hotel bar you mention may be closed one day a week due to staffing issues; the backpackers on which they rely are coming back post-Covid but not yet at the level they were a few years ago.

Good Friday will indeed be quiet if shopping is your thing. My perception is that Good Friday is “the” Easter day in Oz, whilst I would say Easter Sunday is in the UK. Convenience stores will probably be open though. Some Government-run places (e.g. some museums) will be closed on the Friday (only).