‘Never stand between an Australian and a public holiday’. The strange origin story of Recreation Day

Happy Recreation Day for Monday, to all those who celebrate.

It’s a public holiday observed only in the northern part of Tasmania and it’s exactly what it sounds like on the packet – a legally mandated day off to do whatever you like.

It’s also one of several geographically specific public holidays that have helped Australia live up to its “Land of the Long Weekend” moniker.

With Recreation Day and the Melbourne Cup just around the corner, here’s a timely look at some of Australia’s most curious public holidays.

The parochial beginnings of Recreation Day

Embracing long weekends — and if need be, creating them out of thin air — is pretty much how the curiously named Recreation Day came to be.

Recreation Day is a holiday that arguably epitomises modern-day Australian values better than any other — a day with no cultural or religious significance on which you do whatever you…