The empty ending: .au direct
Guide 7 of 7
Is the short .au open to anyone?
A .au direct name, with nothing before the .au, needs only an Australian presence. Its first allocation was a closed, dated process, and some contested names from it are still on hold.
General information from auDA’s published rules, not legal advice. Published by Dotto, which runs a marketplace for .au names.
Who may hold a .au direct name
A .au direct licence needs an Australian presence and no further holder test: the Rules’ criteria for the namespace are the presence, and allocation under the priority allocation process set out in the .au Direct Priority Rules (Rules 2.4.3).
auDA’s own page puts it plainly: anyone with a validated connection to Australia can register one, and a name can be chosen freely provided it is available and the eligibility requirements are met. No ABN or ACN is needed, though holding one is one of the ways to meet the Australian presence requirement (auDA’s .au direct page).
It can be registered for a term of one, two, three, four or five years and renewed at the end of each term while the requirements continue to be met; auDA notes that not every provider offers five-year terms (auDA’s .au direct page).
| Moment | Date | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| The priority window opens | 24 March 2022 | Registrants of .au domain names registered before 24 March 2022, such as com.au names, could apply to register the exact match of their names in .au direct (auDA’s priority allocation page). |
| The window closes | 20 September 2022 UTC | The Priority Application Period ran from 24 March 2022 to 20 September 2022 UTC, and the process is set out in the .au direct Priority Implementation Rules (auDA’s priority allocation page). |
| Unclaimed names open to the public | 3 October 2022 UTC | Names that did not receive a priority application during the window became available to be registered by eligible members of the general public (auDA’s priority allocation page). |
| Contested names stay on hold | Still today | Names with active category 1 priority applications from multiple eligible registrants remain unallocated and subject to priority hold (auDA’s priority allocation page). |
Applying for one today
An ordinary application runs through a registrar like any other .au name, and where applications compete the first complete application the registry receives wins, with the date and time of receipt as the sole reference point (Rules 2.2.1, 2.3.2). The roles are set out in guide 1, and the ending’s own test is in guide 2.
There is no requirement to have a website connected to a .au direct name (auDA’s .au direct page).
Names still on hold
Where a name is in contention, the priority applicants negotiate between themselves; they can reach each other through the registrant contact email address found in the .au WHOIS tool, and the priority status tool shows which registrants hold an active application for a name on hold (auDA’s priority allocation page).
A contested name is only allocated by agreement between the parties, or when there is only one active application remaining; when agreement is reached, the name goes to the registrant with the only active priority application left, on an initial one-year licence term (auDA’s priority allocation page).
Priority applications renew annually on 20 September UTC, and applicants are contacted by their registrar to renew in the 90 days before that; an application that is not renewed is withdrawn from the process and its holder drops out of contention (auDA’s priority allocation page).
One more wrinkle for the holders involved: updating or transferring the registrant information on the related .au name carries the priority application with it, so the new legal entity becomes responsible for managing and renewing it (auDA’s priority allocation page).
This guide is short by design: the process it records closed in 2022, and what remains of it is the dated record above and the names still on hold.