Councils outside Melbourne can ask to swap the Melbourne Cup public holiday for a different local public holiday. This is under Section 8A of the Public Holidays Act 1993.

A local public holiday must be approved by the Minister for Small and Family Business and it is usually granted for five years at a time.

The five‑year government approval ended on October 29, 2025. Approval has been given to keep current arrangements in place for 2026. This gives us a chance to ask the community if they still prefer the current arrangement.

Survey results provided on the City’s online platform Let’s Talk will be collected and reviewed. This will be presented to Councillors together with other relevant information. The final decision rests with Councillors at a future Council meeting.

The current Councillors want to understand what the community want. Community feedback provides important information that can help Council when making the final decision about the public holiday arrangements from 2027 onwards.

Melbourne Cup Day is a public holiday across all of Victoria unless an alternate local holiday has been arranged by a non-metro council. The majority of Victorian councils observe Melbourne Cup Day.

For many years, Bendigo Cup Day has been approved as the local public holiday for the Greater Bendigo area that is west of the Campaspe River. Bendigo Cup Day usually falls on the Wednesday before the Melbourne Cup Day public holiday. Under the Act, only one public holiday can be observed – either a local public holiday for this area of the municipality or Melbourne Cup Day, not both.

The area of the municipality east of the Campaspe River that includes Heathcote only observes the Melbourne Cup public holiday. Heathcote Show also takes place on Melbourne Cup Day. This arrangement is not affected by this current public consultation.

The Bendigo Cup Day public holiday (for area of the municipality on the west side of the Campaspe River) is on Wednesday October 28, 2026.

The Melbourne Cup public holiday is on Tuesday November 3, 2026.

The Bendigo Agricultural Show is on Friday October 23 to Saturday October 24, 2026.

If you know someone who does not have a computer, they can contact our friendly Customer Service team on 1300 002 642 and they can help residents to complete the survey.