Only four weeks left for priority access to new .au direct domain names

Inside Small Business

24th Aug 2022

Australian businesses with existing .au domain names are reminded that they only have four weeks to take advantage of their priority opportunity to register a .au direct domain name that matches their existing domain names ending in .au.

First announced in August 2021 and launched on 24 March 2022, .au direct is Australia’s most recently-introduced namespace, which will allow Australian businesses, organisations and individuals to register shorter domain names directly before the .au and create a distinctly Australian digital presence.

So far, more than 200,000 Australians have already taken advantage of the new namespace by registering a .au direct domain name, according to the .au Domain Administration Limited (auDA), the administrator of the .au domain name system (DNS).

Under the priority program, existing .au domain name holders have had the opportunity to participate in the Priority Allocation Process to register a domain name in the new namespace that matches their pre-existing .au domain name. For example, a registrant who had registered the domain name getyour.com.au prior to 24 March 2022, has priority to apply for an exact match of this name in the new namespace, getyour.au.

Priority applications must be made by 20 September 2022. After that time, names that are not subject to an application will become available to the general public.

“auDA is delighted by the strong response to .au direct from priority applicants,” auDA CEO, Rosemary Sinclair AM, said. “We received more than 35,000 registrations in the first 24 hours, nearly 80,000 registrations in the first week and over 200,000 registrations to date, with many small businesses quick to take advantage of this online innovation.”

.au direct complements existing, well-recognised Australian namespaces including com.au, net.au and org.au as an additional choice of a trusted Australian domain. Existing .au domain names will continue to operate regardless of whether a registrant takes advantage of the priority opportunity, provided registration details are kept up-to-date.

• This story originally appeared on our sister site, Inside Small Business.