.AU is the country code TLD (ccTLD) for Australia and is administered by auDA, the Australian Domain Name Administrator.

Important: As of April 12th, 2021, auDA changes licensing, validation, and security requirements to maintain public confidence in the zone and create uniform requirements across TLDs. Domains no longer meeting the new eligibility requirements after April 12, 2021, cannot renew in the OpenSRS system.

Registration requirements

The name length requirements for.AU domains are two to 63 characters before the TLD. We do not support IDNs for this TLD.

We support the following second-level domains: ASN.AU, .COM.AU, .NET.AU, .ID.AU, .ORG.AU.

Important: The auDA Registry requires you, the reseller, to indicate somewhere on your website that you are an OpenSRS reseller.

Additional registration details can be found in the TLD reference chart.

Eligibility Type	Required for all.AU registrations. Eligibility Type must correspond to the Eligibility Name.
Eligibility ID type	Required for all.AU registrations except for .ID.AU. Options depend on Eligibility Type selection. For example, if Eligibility Type is Charity, the only option available for Eligibility ID Type is Australian Business Number.
Eligibility ID	The number of the eligibility document. Required for all registrations except .ID.AU; however, if you specify an Eligibility ID Type for a .ID.AU registration, then you must complete this field as well. This number must correspond to the Eligibility ID Type that you chose. For example, if the Eligibility ID Type is Australian Business Number, then you must enter that number in this field. Important: The number that you enter in this field will be validated, and if you submit an incorrect number, the registration will fail.
Eligibility name	The name on the Eligibility ID document. This field is required for all registrations except for .ID.AU.
Registrant name	The legal entity name, such as the company name, incorporated association name, or individual's name. This field is required for all registrations.
Registrant ID type	From the drop-down list, choose either Australian Business Number (ABN) or Australian Company Number (ACN). This field is required for all registrations except for .ID.AU.
Registrant ID	The registrant identifier number. This value must correspond to the Registrant ID Type you chose (that is, the ABN or ACN). This is required for all registrations except for .ID.AU. Important: The number that you enter in this field will be validated, and if you submit an incorrect number, the registration will fail.
Policy reason	Choose the reason that the registrant is entitled to use the domain name. This field is required. Allowed values are: The name exactly matches the acronym or abbreviation of the registrant's company or trading name, organization or association name, or trademark. The name is connected firmly and substantially to the registrant.

Residency requirements

All.AU domains, including secondary TLDs, require an Australian address.

Secondary level domain requirements

As per the current process, all secondary.AU TLD's domain names must be an exact match, abbreviation, or acronym of the Registrant's name or otherwise closely and substantially connected to the Registrant.

As of April 12th, 2021, auDA changes eligibility requirements for .COM.AU, NET.AU, and ORG.AU to meet the Australian presence requirement.

Secondary TLD	Requirements
.ASN.AU	To register a .ASN.AU domain name, Registrants must be one of the following: An association incorporated in any Australian State or Territory. A political party registered with the Australian Electoral Commission. A trade union or other organization registered under the Workplace Relations Act 1996. A sporting or special interest club operating in Australia. A charity operating in Australia, as defined in the registrant’s constitution or other documents of incorporation. A non-profit organization operating in Australia, as defined in the registrant’s constitution or other documents of incorporation.
.COM.AU and .NET.AU	To register a .COM.AU domain name, Registrants must be one of the following: An Australian registered company. Trading under a registered business name in any Australian State or Territory. An Australian partnership or sole trader. A foreign company licensed to trade in Australia. The owner of an Australian Registered Trademark. An applicant for an Australian Registered Trademark. An association incorporated in any Australian State or Territory. An Australian commercial statutory body.
.ID.AU	The name must include or be derived from one or more words of the Registrant's name or the name the Registrant is commonly known, such as a nickname. To register a .ID.AU domain name, Registrants must be an Australian citizen or an Australian resident.
.ORG.AU	To register a .ORG.AU domain name, Registrants must belong to one of the following: An association incorporated in any Australian State or Territory. A political party registered with the Australian Electoral Commission. A trade union or other organization registered under the Workplace Relations Act 1996. A sporting or special interest club operating in Australia. A charity operating in Australia, as defined in the registrant’s constitution or other documents of incorporation. A non-profit organization operating in Australia, as defined in the registrant’s constitution or other documents of incorporation.

General requirements

When completing the registration form for any.AU domain name, you must submit some additional information about the Registrant. These additional fields are displayed in the owner information section of the control panel registration form and the additional domain information section of the RWI registration form.

Since July 1, 2018, the.AU namespace migrated to a new registry operator, Afilias. The following changes were made after the maintenance period:

Registration and transfer orders may now be submitted from one to five years.
Transfer and trade orders will default to a one-year term instead of two.

Note: These requirements apply to all new registrations, transfers in, and contact updates or changes.

Special requirements

The registry operator for.AU has several other requirements that must be complied with. Registrars must send Registrants the domain's authorization code upon registration, as well as a certificate of registration. Both of these are sent to the registrant by OpenSRS upon registration. The Reseller that facilitated the transaction is listed in both of these notifications.

Note: OpenSRS is no longer able to provide.AU domain registrations to any reseller that is based in China. This follows a formal direction auDA gave Tucows, the registry for the Australian top-level domain, .AU. More information can be found in our blog post.

Renewals

Domain names may be renewed up to 90 days before the expiry date and up to 30 days after the expiry date. Domain renewals now default to one year.

If the domain name is not renewed by the expiry date, the status of the name becomes expired hold. The domain name is removed from the DNS and cannot be updated; however, it can be renewed or transferred to another Registrar.

If the domain name is not renewed within 30 days after the expiry date, the status changes to expired pending purge, the domain name cannot be updated, renewed, or transferred to another registrar and will be purged from the registry during the next purge cycle.

At OpenSRS, we allow two renewals, one synchronous (now), one asynchronous (later).

Synchronous renewal is when a domain renewal is processed for one year, it will renew the domain and synchronize the expiry date with the registry.

Note: For asynchronous renewal, if the domain is transferred away before the scheduled renewal, there would be no refund on the paid renewal.

Changes in ownership

Ownership changes are applicable for .ASN.AU, ORG.AU, .NET.AU, .COM.AU but not .ID.AU.

.AU domain contact details can easily and freely be changed at any time through the control panel. However, updating the domain's legal owner requires a change of ownership is processed. The ownership change costs the same as a new.AU domain registration. After the change, the domain will gain up to a five-year registration period, and any previous registration period will be lost.

Both documents linked below must be filled out, signed, and emailed to help@opensrs.com. To reduce processing time, please check the documents for accurate information first.

Note: You will need to log into your OpenSRS Help & Support account to download the forms from this article.

If you are a sole trader or a company with a recently cancelled ABN a please seek to have it reinstated with the ABR, you may do so at the following:

https://abr.business.gov.au/ContactUs/Activate

In the instance your domain holder has an inactive or deregistered ABN/ACN, we will require the following forms which are to be validated through the Tucows compliance team. Please have the registrant fill them in to the best of their abilities, if there are concerns, please have them contact the registry directly. The registrant should fill in the statute of declaration form from their respective Australian state in addition to the Transfer of Domain Name Chain of title form.

Validating the Current Owner Document

To verify the document from the current owner, please compare the information found on the registry whois with the information in the current owner document. You can use the .AU registry web whois.

The document has three fields:

Domain name - Domain involved in the ownership change.
Registrant name - Must exactly match the Registrant field, not Registrant Contact Name.
Signature - The signature must be visible and on or near the signature line.

Validating the New Owner Document

Attribute	Information required
Domain Name	Domain involved in the ownership change.
Registrant Name	Registrant ID is ABN or ACN - This field MUST match Entity Name in the ABN lookup tool. Registrant ID is Other - You are providing a trademark number; you can use the ATMOSS tool to look up the trademark owner.
Eligibility Type	The new registrant document should reflect the eligibility type, which best matches the entity type. If there is not an exact match, pick the option which matches best.
Eligibility Name	This is either the same as the entity name or one of the business names listed on the ABN Lookup. Note: If no eligibility name is supplied or if the name supplied is not on the ABN lookup, we will use the entity name.
Eligibility ID	This number can be found in the ABN/ACN lookup tool.
Registrant ID	This denotes the type of Eligibility ID: ABN ACN Other
Owner Contact Information	This is the section that displays the new whois contact details.
Signature	The signature must be visible and on or near the signature line.

Determining what consists of an ownership trade

Trades should always consist of the ownership over the domain being relinquished to another separate entity where necessary. In some cases trades may not be necessary if the domain contains partially correct ABN/ACN data such as the ABN number, however if it contains incorrect or old business/entity name then no trade should be necessary and a simple update will suffice.

Should you ever have concerns over whether or not a Change in Ownership is required please do not hesitate to contact support for assistance.

Transfers and cancellations

When the transfer request is submitted, an email is sent to the owner's confirmation email address specified on the transfer form. There is a two-day window to approve or reject the request. If the transfer request is not approved within two days, the registry declines the transfer request.

There is no charge for .AU transfers.

Cancellation policy

Upon registration of this ccTLD, there is a three-calendar day grace period during which the transaction may be canceled. We do not offer refunds on renewals of domains, but you may request to cancel the registration at any time by submitting a request to compliance@opensrs.org.

Note: Your registration of a domain name may also be subject to suspension, cancellation, or transfer should you be found to violate any term of our Exhibit A end-user agreement,

Complaints handling policy

OpenSRS Compliance assists with problems or requests surrounding.AU domains. To file a complaint regarding a .AU domain, email compliance@opensrs.org.

A confirmation receipt of your complaint will be sent out immediately, and the response time is within two business days.

The .AU Domain Name Suppliers' Code of Practice and the auDA Consumer Information outlines your rights surrounding disputes and the ability to lodge complaints.

Registry accreditation

Tucows (Australia) Pty Limited (ABN 38 144 482 002 / ACN 144482002) is an auDA Accredited .AU Registrar.

Registered address

Level 11, 1 York St.

Sydney NSW 2000

Mailing address

Tucows Inc.

96 Mowat Ave

Toronto, Ontario M6K 3M1

Additional resources

.AU domain policies