With northern Tasmania's curiously named Recreation Day and the Melbourne Cup just around the corner, it seems like a timely opportunity to turn attention to some of Australia's most unusual public holidays.
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.
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 choose. With that in mind, perhaps the most surprising thing about Recreation Day is the fact it took until 1991 for the state to legislate it into being. Still, it's difficult not to admire northern Tasmanians for their ability to manifest a day off into existence."You know, 'we just want another public holiday so that there's some kind of equity across the state'.
Last year, fewer than 74,000 spectators turned up at Flemington and Channel Ten's ratings slumped to a record low of just over a million metropolitan viewers last year – a far cry from the more than 2.7 million city viewers who tuned in a decade prior.
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