<P> The Queen's Birthday weekend and Empire Day (24 May) were the traditional times for public fireworks displays in Australia . The sale of fireworks to the public was banned in various states through the 1980s and by the Australian Capital Territory on 24 August 2009 . Tasmania is the only state and the Northern Territory the only territory to still sell fireworks to the public . The Queen's Birthday Honours List, in which new members of the Order of Australia and other Australian honours are named, is released on the date of the Queen's Birthday in most states . </P> <P> A royal proclamation issued on 5 February 1957 established the Canadian monarch's official birthday as the last Monday before 25 May . The sovereign's birthday had been observed in Canada since 1845, when the parliament of the Province of Canada passed a statute to officially recognize Queen Victoria's birthday, 24 May . Over the ensuing decades after Queen Victoria died in 1901 (at which time the Monday before 25 May became known by law as Victoria Day), the official date in Canada of the reigning monarch's birthday changed through various royal proclamations: for Edward VII it continued by yearly proclamation to be observed on 24 May, but was 3 June for George V and 23 June for Edward VIII (their actual birthdays). </P> <P> Edward VIII abdicated on 11 December 1936, three days before the birthday of his brother and successor, George VI . The new King expressed to his ministers his wish that his birthday not be publicly celebrated, in light of the recent circumstances . But, the Prime Minister at the time, William Lyon Mackenzie King, the rest of Cabinet, and Governor General the Lord Tweedsmuir felt otherwise, seeing such a celebration as a way to begin the reign on a positive note . George VI's official birthday in Canada was thereafter marked on various days between 20 May and 14 June . </P> <P> The first official birthday of Elizabeth II, daughter of George VI, was the last to be celebrated in June; the haphazard format was abandoned in 1952, when the Governor - General - in - Council moved Empire Day and an amendment to the law moved Victoria Day both to the Monday before 25 May, and the monarch's official birthday in Canada was by regular viceregal proclamations made to fall on this same date every year between 1953 and 1957, when the link was made permanent . The two holidays are in law entirely distinct except for being appointed to be observed on the same day; it is a general holiday in Nunavut and New Brunswick (there prescribed as a day of rest on which retail businesses must be closed). The Queen's official birthday is marked by the firing of an artillery salute in the national and provincial capitals and the flying of the Royal Union Flag on buildings belonging to the federal Crown, if there is a second flag pole available . </P>

When is the public holiday for queens birthday