.AU domain policies – OpenSRS Help & Support

The TLD for Australia is .AU. It is administered by auDA, the Australian Domain Name Administrator.

As of Thursday, Mar 24, 2022, domain names are open for registration directly under .AU as second-level domains referred to as .AU direct names.

Registration requirements
Renewals
Changes in ownership
Transfers
Cancellation policy
Complaints handling policy
Registry accreditation
Additional resources

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.

Additional registration details are in our TLD reference chart.

Eligibility Type	Required for all .AU registrations. The eligibility type must correspond to the eligibility name.
Eligibility ID type	.AU registrations except for .ID.AU need it. Options depend on eligibility type selection. For example, when the eligibility type is charity, the only option available for eligibility ID type is Australian Business Number (ABN).
Eligibility ID	The eligibility ID is the number of the eligibility document. Required for all registrations except .ID.AU; however, when you specify an eligibility ID type for a .ID.AU registration, you must complete this field. This number must correspond to the eligibility ID type that you chose. For example, if the eligibility ID type is ABN, you must enter that number in this field. Important: The number entered in this field undergoes validation; registration fails when submitting an incorrect number.
Eligibility name	The name on the eligibility ID document. Registrations except for .ID.AU require this field.
Registrant name	The registrant name is the legal entity name, such as the company name, incorporated association name, or an individual name. All registrations require this field.
Registrant ID type	Select ABN or Australian Company Number (ACN) from the drop-down list. All registrations except for .ID.AU require this field.
Registrant ID	The registrant identifier number. This value must correspond to the registrant ID type selected. All registrations except for .ID.AU require this field. Important: The number entered in this field undergoes validation; registration fails when submitting an incorrect number.
Policy reason	Choose the reason that the registrant is entitled to use the domain name. This field is required. Allowed values are: The name 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.

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

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 Monday, Apr 12, 2021, auDA changed 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 a special interest club which operates in Australia. A charity operating in Australia, as defined in the registrant's constitution or other incorporation documents. A non-profit organization operating in Australia, as defined in the registrant's constitution or other incorporation documents.
.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	To register a .ID.AU domain name, registrants must be Australian citizens or Australian residents. 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.
.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 incorporation documents. A non-profit organization operating in Australia, as defined in the registrant's constitution or other incorporation documents.

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.

In July 2018, the .AU namespace migrated to a new registry operator, Afilias.
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. Registrars must send registrants the domain's authorization code and registration certificate upon registration. Both of these are sent to the registrant by OpenSRS. 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 based in China due to a formal direction from auDA.

Renewals

Registrants may renew domains 90 days before expiry and 30 days after expiry. Domain renewals default to one year.

When a domain expires, the status changes to expired hold. The domain name is removed from the DNS and cannot be updated; however, it can be renewed or transferred to another Registrar.

When the domain name does not renew within 30 days of expiry, 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) and one asynchronous (later).

Synchronous renewal processes a domain renewal for one year; it renews the domain and synchronizes the expiry date with the registry.

Note: For asynchronous renewal, when the domain transfers away before the scheduled renewal, there is no refund on the paid renewal. As of Monday, Apr 12, 2021, auDA updated licensing, validation and security requirements to maintain public confidence in the zone and create uniform conditions across TLDs. Domains no longer meeting the eligibility requirements cannot renew.

Changes in ownership

Ownership changes apply to .AU .ASN.AU, ORG.AU, .NET.AU, .COM.AU but not .ID.AU.

Update domain contact details through the control panel. Updating the domain's legal owner requires processing a change of ownership. After the change, the domain gains up to five years on the registration period, and previous registration time is 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.

Sole traders or companies with a recently cancelled ABN can seek to reinstate it with the ABR.

When the domain holder has an inactive or deregistered ABN/ACN, we will require validation of the following forms through the Tucows compliance team. Please have the registrant complete them. If there are concerns, please have the registrant contact the registry directly. The registrant completes the statute of declaration form from their respective state in addition to the transfer of domain name chain of title form.

Transfer of Domain Name Chain of Title Form

Note: Log into your OpenSRS Help & Support account to access the forms in this article.

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.

The document has three fields:

Domain name - Domain involved in the ownership change.
Registrant name - Must exactly match the registrant field, not the registrant contact name.
Signature - The signature must be visible 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 the entity name in the ABN lookup tool. Registrant ID is other: You provide 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 fits best.
Eligibility name	The eligibility name is either the same as the entity name or one of the business names listed on the ABN lookup tool. Note: We use the entity name when supplying no eligibility name or if the name given is not on the ABN lookup.
Eligibility ID	The eligibility ID is in the ABN/ACN lookup tool.
Registrant ID	Registrant ID denotes the type of eligibility ID: ABN ACN Other
Owner contact information	The owner contact information 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 consist of the registrant relinquishing ownership over the domain to another entity. In some cases, trades may not be necessary when the domain contains partially correct ABN/ACN data, such as the ABN number. No trade should be required when an incorrect or old business/entity name was used; a simple update will suffice.

Should you ever have concerns over whether or not a change in ownership is required, please contact support for assistance.

Transfers and cancellations

When the transfer request is submitted, an email goes to the owner's email address specified on the transfer form. There is a two-day window to approve or reject the request. The registrant accepts the transfer request within two days. Once two days have passed without approval, the registry declines the transfer request.

Cancellation policy

There is a three-day grace period during which transactions permit cancellation. 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. Submit complaints about .AU domains to compliance@opensrs.org. A confirmation receipt of the communication goes out immediately; the response time is within two business days.

The .AU Domain Name Suppliers' Code of Practice and the auDA Consumer Information outlines 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