.au Domain Names

auDA is the authority in Australia responsible for developing and administering rules regarding domains that end in .au

Earlier in 2022 they introduced a new general purpose namespace available to anyone with an Australian connection (including citizens, permanent residents, organisations, associations and businesses registered in Australia, and legal entities with a registered Australian trademark).

The new domains are simpler and shorter and allow the domain name to be used directly before the .au. For example ascetdigital.au

If you already own a valid domain (such as .com.au etc) you are entitled to apply for Priority Status to register the .au version until 20 September.

You can choose not to do anything at all. Or you can choose to claim your .au version.

The Choices

Either choice will have no effect on your current domain, which will continue to work the way it always has.

Claiming your .au

If you received an email with a link to register the .au domain, go ahead and do so
If you didn’t receive an email but would like to secure your .au domain, please contact us and we will do this for you

The domain will be available for use in the same ways as any other domain. You may like to have it redirected to your current website.

Relinquishing your .au

You need not do anything if you wish to relinquish the matching .au domain. At the start of October it will become available for registration and use by others (unless another business holds and equal priority claim to the domain).

Australian Namespaces

There are several existing namespaces that are each used for different purposes and will specific eligibility criteria:

open namespaces – available for the public can register names, including:
- com.au – businesses, commercial entities, companies etc
- net.au – businesses, commercial entities, companies etc
- org.au – charities and non-profit organisations
- au – direct namespace
- asn.au – incorporated associations, political parties, trade unions, sporting and special interest clubs
- id.au – individuals who are Australian citizens or residents
closed namespaces – closed to the public and only available in defined sectors:
- edu.au – state and federal educational institutions
- gov.au – Government bodies
- csiro.au – sole use of the Commonwealth Science and Industry Research Organisation
state and territory namespaces