Online is Easy team members Anthony Mayer and Sofian Efendi attended the .auDA (.au Domain Administration Ltd.) end of year networking event in-person last week (a rare experience after nearly 2 years of lockdown). Being aligned with the .auDA as an Associate Member always gives us a little spike of pride as our values align. They strive for high standards of corporate governance and integrity and are tasked with administering a trusted .au for the benefit of all Australians, and they champion an open, free, secure and global Internet.
Anthony Mayer with auDA team
Left to right: Andrew McCallum(Member Management), Tania Fryer (Elected Director), Anthony Mayer (Digital Strategy Consultant), Rosemary Sinclair AM (CEO), Rebecca Papillo (Comms Manager), Sophie Mitchell (Chief Comms), Dr. Bruce Tonkin (COO),
Coming March 2022. .au direct names - like onlineiseasy.au - will be open to anyone with a connection to Australia. It's a shorter, simpler domain name that will be available as a new option for Australian Internet users.
To be eligible for a .au direct name you must have a verifiable Australian presence, which includes being a citizen or permanent resident, or being an organisation registered in Australia. (The full definition of an Australian presence is in the definitions section of the .au Licensing Rules).
You can choose any name you like as long as it:
a) is available to be registered,
b) meets the syntax requirements, and
c) does not appear on the Reserved Names list, as set out in the Licensing Rules.
Through public consultation, multi-stakeholder advisory committees and member/user feedback the not for profit organisation regularly seeks public input on the policies which shape the .au country code top-level domain (ccTLD), which is part of Australia’s critical infrastructure. The organisation has been endorsed by the Commonwealth Government to ensure it is a safe, accessible and trusted Australian public asset for all internet users.
With over 3,405,171 .au domains registered and TRUST being a key issue for all internet users, the dot AU domain space has checks and balances to ensure accurate and honest use of the namespace labels.
For example, to use a .com.au or a .net.au domain you must be a commercial entity registered in Australia, such as a company (with an ABN or ACN as registered through ASIC) or a business (with a BN registered with state governments). The .org.au domain is for charities and non-profit organisations and you need to prove your NFP and/or charity status to hold this domain extension. The .asn.au is for incorporated associations, political parties, trade unions, sporting and special interest clubs and here again, you must prove your Australian incorporation status to hold this kind of domain extension.
Rosemary Sinclair AM, auDA CEO — “… during 2020-2021, new domain registrations peaked at 51,300 per month”
Note that existing registrants of other .au domain names will have the chance to apply for the .au direct exact match of their names via the priority allocation process -- for example, gippslanddomains.com.au will have priority to register gippslanddomains.au
The .au direct namespace is different to the namespaces that are intended for specific use e.g. com.au and net.au for commercial entities, org.au for not-for-profit entities, or edu.au for educational institutions.
If you'd like to know more about the direct .au domain space roll out you can view updates from the .auDA website.
Through our trusted Gippsland based, Australian business, you can Register your own domain name.
Or, connect with Anthony directly on 0417 047 632 or or schedule a Free online 30 min consultation.
