.AU

.AU is the country code Top-Level-Domain (ccTLD) of Australia. An .AU domain is normally used by companies who are located in Australia or who have business relationships with Australia.

Introduced	1986
Country	Australia
Registry	AusRegistry
IDN Capable	N/A
Webpage	Register .AU

Registry

TLD	.com.au
Allowed TLDs	.com.au, .net.au, .org.au, .id.au
Registry	Afilias Australia Pty. Ltd.
Dispute Policy	Rules
Registrar	1api GmbH
WHOIS-Server	whois.auda.org.au
WHOIS-Update	5 minutes
Min. Characters	2
Max. Characters	63
Character Set	Letters and numbers Hyphens ("-"), however not at the beginning or directly in front of the TLD IDN: not allowed
Limitations	Registrant Contacts: Required: 1 / Maximum: 1 Admin Contacts: Required: 0 / Maximum: 1 Tech Contacts: Required: 1 / Maximum: 1 Billing Contacts: Required: 0 / Maximum: 1
{{{Possible Extensions}}}
IDN capable	No
Restore capable	Non-Realtime
Handle Updates	Unsupported
Registration System	semi-real-time
Allowed number of NS	2 to 9
Host IP-Addresses Type	IPv4 / IPv6
Hosts managed as	Object
SEC DNS Interface	DS data interface
Transfer Authcode required	Yes
Transfer Lock	No
Transfer Confirmation (Request / Approve)	FOA E-Mail / -
Owner Change by	Trade
Trade Periods	reset, 1 year added
Transfer included	No
Trade Confirmation (Request / Approve)	Fax / -

Periods

{{{Possible Extensions}}}
Registration Periods	1-5 years
Add Grace Period	0 days
Accounting Period	-7 days
Finalization Period	-1 day
Failure Period	29 days
Payment Period	-61 days
Deletion Restorable Period	1 day
Deletion Hold Period	0 days
Explicit Renewals	Yes
Renewal Periods	1-5 years

API

Domain Registration

Domains can be registered with the API AddDomain command.

command = AddDomain
domain  = (DOMAIN)

REQUIRED

ownercontact0 = (CONTACT)
admincontact0 = (CONTACT)
techcontact0 = (CONTACT)
billingcontact0 = (CONTACT)
nameserver0 = (NAMESERVER)
nameserver1 = (NAMESERVER)
X-AU-REGISTRANT-ID-NUMBER = (TEXT)
X-AU-REGISTRANT-ID-TYPE = ABN | ACN | TM | OTHER

OPTIONAL

auth = (TEXT) | (NULL)
period = (PERIOD)
transferlock = 0 | 1 | (NULL)

Further information can be found at TLD specific

Domain Transfer

The transfer has to be initiated by the gaining registrar and can be requested with the API TransferDomain command. An "Authorisation Code" must be provided in the request, which can be obtained from the current registrar by the owner or Admin-C of the domain. The Auth-code can also be requested directly from AuDA at https://pw.auda.org.au/

Please ensure, that you have a correct "Authorisation Code" associated with the domain, before initiating the transfer, otherwise it will fail.

Our system will send an FoA email to the Registrant. Once the Registrant has approved the request by clicking on the link in the FoA email, the transfer request will be submitted to the Registry (typically, the transfer takes place immediately).

command = TransferDomain
domain = (DOMAIN)

REQUIRED

auth = <TEXT>

OPTIONAL

period = (PERIOD)
ownercontact0 = (CONTACT)
admincontact0 = (CONTACT)
techcontact0 = (CONTACT)
billingcontact0 = (CONTACT)
transferlock = 0 | 1 | (NULL)
action = REQUEST | APPROVE | DENY | CANCEL | USERTRANSFER

Delete Domain

Domains can be deleted with the API DeleteDomain command.
There is a Deletion Restorable Period of 1 day.

command = DeleteDomain
domain = (DOMAIN)

Restore Domain

Restores can be processed automatically but not in realtime. A restore is possible within 1 day upon deletion. Please use the command RestoreDomain.

command = RestoreDomain
domain = (DOMAIN)

OPTIONAL

subuser = (TEXT)
renewalmode = (NULL) | (TEXT)

Ownerchange

In order to change the owner you have to request a trade with the TradeDomain command. This can be done through our web interface or through our API:

command = TradeDomain
domain = (DOMAIN)

REQUIRED

Ownercontact0 = (CONTACT)
X-AU-REGISTRANT-ID-NUMBER = (TEXT)
X-AU-REGISTRANT-ID-TYPE = ABN | ACN | TM | OTHER

Once the trade has been requested, an FoA email is sent to both the losing and the gaining Registrants. Once both have clicked on the approval link, the request will be submitted to the Registry. This is typically processed in real-time.

TLD specific

Restrictions

.AU is the so-called country code Top-Level-Domain (ccTLD) of Australia. An .AU domain is normally used by companies who are located in Australia or who have business relationships with Australia.

• COM.AU: For Australian registered companies or a trading under a registered business name in any Australian State or Territory or an Australian partnership or sole trader or a foreign company licensed to trade in Australia or owners of an Australian Registered Trade Mark or an applicant for an Australian Registered Trade Mark or associations incorporated in any Australian State or Territory or Australian commercial statutory bodies
• NET.AU: same as for .COM.AU
• ORG.AU: For a charity operating in Australia or a non-profit organisation operating in Australia
• ID.AU: For Australian Citizens and Australian Residents

Special parameters

Required for .COM.AU, .ID.AU, .NET.AU and .ORG.AU registrations:

X-AU-REGISTRANT-ID-NUMBER = (TEXT) (max. 255 chars) - The respective number depending on the registrant id type.
X-AU-REGISTRANT-ID-TYPE = ABN | ACN | TM - The meaning of the abbreviations is stated in the table below.

Abbreviation	Registrant Id Type
ABN	Australian Business Number
ACN	Australian Company Number
TM	Trademark Number

The domain registration may fail due to incorrect ACN or ABN numbers provided. Make sure that the ACN or ABN number you are using is registered and ACTIVE. The validity of these numbers can be checked using the following lookup services.

The validity of the ABN number can be checked via the following LINK:

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

The validity of the ACN number can be checked via the following LINK:

https://connectonline.asic.gov.au/RegistrySearch/faces/landing/SearchRegisters.jspx (select "Search within: Organization & Business Names" and enter the ACN below it)

The Australian Trademark database can be search via the following database:

ATMOSS - Australian Trade Mark On-line Search System

Authcode Request

Registrants can recover their domain authcode via The .AU registry website.
AUDA Recover Domain Password and Expiry Date

RenewalProhibited Status

The registry does not allow explicit renewals unless the domain is within 90 days of the current expiration date. This lock will be automatically removed by the registry and then will be applied after the domain has been renewed.

Release of 2nd level .AU

Starting from March 24, 2022, registration of domains directly under .au will be available to any business or individual that fulfills the Australian Presence requirements (see https://www.auda.org.au/policy/au-domain-administration-rules-licensing and https://www.auda.org.au/policy/au-domain-administration-rules-au-namespace-implementation for details).

There are no special restrictions or requirements on the string that can be applied for registration under .au (i.e. there is no requirement for the string to match a company name or a trademark*, like it is the case for e.g. com.au).

PLEASE NOTE: only in the case an applicant not based in Australia uses an Australian Trademark to establish their Australian Presence, then the domain applied for must match the Trademark.

Important information on Availability checks for second level .AU domains

Unfortunately, the Registry Operator for .AU is only planning to make availability checks on 2nd level .AU domains available on the date of the launch (March 24, 2022 at 2am UTC). This means that until that date, we are unable to provide reliable results for availability checks on .AU. Until then, when a lookup is performed on a second level .au string, our system will automatically query the corresponding domain under com.au, net.au and org.au. If at least one of these lookups returns an "unavailable" result, then the result returned will indicate that the domain is not available for general registration and that a Priority token is required to submit an application for the 2nd level string. The API will return the following message:

• If only one of the 3rd level domains is currently registered: 211 Domain Name not available; Membership contact required
• If more than one of the 3rd level domains is currently registered (the 2nd level domain is in a contention set): 211 Domain Name not available; Domain Name reserved by PRIORITY-ACCESS

These messages are the same that the Registry will return on live availability checks once their system goes live on Mar 24, 2022 at 02:00 UTC, so Resellers that integrate now will not need to change anything in their implementation once .AU launches.

If all 3rd level domains are available, then also the 2nd level string will be considered as “available” for registration through a simple GO-LIVE application. This workaround should provide a reasonable level of accuracy for those Resellers that rely on availability check in their order processing. We can, however, not guarantee 100% accuracy: the string might be otherwise unavailable due to other Registry imposed restrictions or because the string is registered in one of the other minor 3rd level .au extensions.

Priority Registrations for Registrants of existing 3rd level .au domains (Grandfathering)

In the initial phase of the .au launch, Registrants of existing 3rd level .au domains will have a Priority right to register the corresponding string directly under .au.

During the first 180 days following the launch on March 24th, any string matching an existing 3rd level .au domain will be reserved in the Registry and unavailable for general registration. Only applicants with a Priority right will be able to apply to register the string under .au, using a special authentication token.

AuDA has divided Priority applicants in 2 categories, depending on when their 3rd level .AU domain was registered:

• Priority category 1: 3rd level .AU Names with a creation date on or before February 4, 2018 at 23:59:59 UTC
• Priority category 2: 3rd level .AU Names with a creation date after February 4, 2018 at 23:59:59 UTC and before March 23, 2022 at 23:59:59 UTC.

In those cases where more than one eligible Priority applicant exist, the 2nd level .AU domains will be allocated according to the following criteria:

• Where there are Category 1 and Category 2 applicants, Category 1 applicants have priority over Category 2 applicants.
• Where there are multiple Category 1 applicants, all Category 1 applicants must agree on the allocation. Domains for which an agreement cannot be reached, will remain reserved indefinitely, until a single applicant remains.
• Where there are only Category 2 applicants, the name is allocated to the applicant whose 3rd level .AU domain has the earliest creation date in the .AU registry.

Priority Registration Tokens

AuDA will make the Priority Registration Tokens available to the Registrars managing the 3rd level domain name.

This means that the Reseller submitting a priority registration order/pre-order does not need to obtain the Token from the Registrants if the 3rd level domain on which the priority application is based on is managed by HEXONET at the time the application is submitted to AuDA AND is managed by the Reseller that is submitting the application

For pre-orders, this check will take place in the days immediately prior to the launch date of March 24th 2022, in order to account for transfers/deletions of the 3rd level domain used to submit a priority application. Resellers should keep in mind that, while the HEXONET system will accept any pre-orders submitted, any pre-order that does not meet the conditions above will be failed at that point.

Where the 3rd level domain is currently managed by a different Registrar/Reseller, the Registrant will need to obtain the Token from their current Registrar/Reseller, or directly from AuDA at a portal currently under construction and that will be available at https://priority.auda.org.au right before the launch on Mar 23, 2022.

Please note that AuDA is planning to release the priority tokens on the following dates:

• 23 March 2022, 21:00 UTC – priority tokens available to registrars for names under management
• 23 March 2022, 22:00 UTC – priority.auda.org.au available for public to retrieve tokens

How to check the Priority status of a 3rd level domain

AuDA provides an online tool to allow existing Registrants to check the Priority status of their 3rd level .au domain and whether there are other competing applicants for the same string. After March 24th, the tool will also show whether an application for the matching 2nd level domain has been submitted/withdrawn/declined.

The tool is available at https://www.auda.org.au/tools/priority-status-tool

How to ensure a smooth Priority application experience

In order to avoid unnecessary delays or errors, it is recommended that Registrants and Resellers confirm that the Registrant details on the 3rd level .au domain used to claim a priority right on a 2nd level .au domain are correct and up-to-date. If necessary, the Registrant details on the 3rd level domain should be updated before a pre-order for the 2nd level .au domain is submitted.

For details on how to perform this operation, see https://wiki.hexonet.net/wiki/AU#Ownerchange

Please note that once a Priority application has been submitted to AuDA, it will not be possible to transfer or to perform any update to the Registrant details of the 3rd level domain used to claim the priority right until the 2nd level domain has been assigned.

When will 2ld.au domains get allocated?

Eligible Priority Applicants have to exercise their priority right and actively submit an application within the 6 months of the Priority Application phase. Eligible Priority Applicants can also explicitly renounce their right to apply.

Generally speaking, the allocation of a reserved 2ld.au domain takes place once all eligible Priority Applicants have expressed their intentions.

When there is only one eligible Priority Applicant for a string, the domain name is immediately allocated to that Applicant.

Where there are multiple eligible Priority Applicants for a string, the name is allocated as soon as the contention is resolved.

In the case where there are only multiple Category 2 applicants, if the applicant with the 3rd level domain with the earliest registration date applies, the domain is allocated to them within the following 24 hours and any pending application from other Category 2 applicants is automatically rejected.

Please note that applicants and prospective applicants can also actively withdraw or decline their application on the AuDA portal where priority tokens can be requested.

Priority Registrations Timeline

General Availability applications

Any string that is not currently registered under one of the existing .au 3rd level extensions or otherwise reserved by the Registry will be available for registrations on a First-Come-First-Served basis from March 24th, 2022.

Any applicant fulfilling the Australian presence requirement can submit a preorder for any available .au string. These orders will then be submitted to the Registry in the order they were received on Launch day.

Validation of Natural Persons applying to register a .AU domain name

AuDA requires all Registrars to validate the details of anyone applying for a .au domain “using Reliable and Independent Electronic Data or valid identity documents” before submitting their application to the Registry systems.

For 3rd level extensions such as com.au that are restricted to Australian businesses, this type of validation is already built into the regular registration workflow, using the ABN/ACN numbers provided in the domain registration command.

As 2nd level .au domains are open also to Natural Persons, HEXONET will need to perform validation of the applicant’s details before submitting their orders to the Registry.

Unlike ABN/ACN numbers lookups, these checks are not free. We are currently working on a separate paid validation service that Resellers can offer to their customers to validate a Contact Handle that can then be used to apply for one or more .au domains. We expect the service to be available through HEXONET in early March, please check back here for updates.

Please note that it is possible for Resellers to submit pre-orders on behalf of Natural Persons and complete the Contact Handle validation at a later stage once the new validation service is available (but no later than Mar 23, 2022, to allow enough time for us to prepare the submission of the registration order).

Validation of Natural Persons applying to register a .AU domain name AuDA requires all Registrars to validate the details of anyone applying for a .au domain “using Reliable and Independent Electronic Data or valid identity documents” before submitting their application to the Registry systems.

For 3rd level extensions such as com.au that are restricted to Australian businesses, this type of validation is already built into the regular registration workflow, using the ABN/ACN numbers provided in the domain registration command.

As 2nd level .au domains are open also to Natural Persons, HEXONET will need to perform validation of the applicant’s details before submitting their orders to the Registry.

Unlike ABN/ACN numbers lookups, these checks are not free. We are currently working on a separate paid validation service that Resellers can offer to their customers to validate a Contact Handle that can then be used to apply for one or more .au domains. We expect the service to be available through HEXONET in early March, please check back here for updates.

Please note that it is possible for Resellers to submit pre-orders on behalf of Natural Persons and complete the Contact Handle validation at a later stage once the new validation service is available (but no later than Mar 23, 2022, to allow enough time for us to prepare the submission of the registration order).

How to submit pre-orders

To submit a pre-order for a .au domain ahead of the launch date of March 24th, 2022, Resellers can use the AddDomainApplication command.

Supported periods:

• Priority preorders with multiple potential applicants: 1 year
• Priority preorders with single applicants: 1-5 years
• General availability preorders: 1-5 years

Priority Preorders (Grandfathering)

To submit a preorder on behalf of a customer with a Priority right, the following additional fields should be included in the AddDomainApplication command:

• CLASS = AU_GRANDFATHERING
• X-AU-PRIORITY-TOKEN = String (This field is optional when submitting the AddDomainApplication, and it is not required when the 3rd level domain on which the priority right is based is managed by HEXONET and by the Reseller submitting the preorder (see section “Priority Registration Tokens” for more details). Where the 3rd level domain is managed by a different Registrar/Reseller, this field needs to be populated with the Priority Token provided by AuDA to the Registrant using the ModifyDomainApplication command before March 24th, 2022 in order for the request to be submitted to the Registry.)
• X-AU-GRANDFATHERING-TLD = <com.au|net.au|org.au|asn.au|id.au> (This is the 3rd level extension of the domain on which the priority right is based. For instance, if you are applying for mydomain.au based on mydomain.net.au, you can fill the value “net.au” here. It is very important that this field is filled in correctly for domains that are managed by HEXONET and the Reseller, to ensure that we can import the Priority Token correctly.

Resellers should take extra care in ensuring that the Registrant details of the 3rd level domain are correct and match those submitted in the AddDomainApplication for the 2nd level domain. In case the same Registrant holds the domain in multiple 3rd level extensions, it is the responsibility of the Reseller that the domain with the highest Priority right is entered here.)

• X-AU-IMPORT-TOKEN = <1|0> (optional - Default 1) (When the 3rd level domain is managed by the Reseller through HEXONET, we will automatically import the Priority Token to submit the application to the Registry. In case the Reseller does not wish for the token to be imported automatically, this field can be set to 0. In this case, the X-AU-PRIORITY-TOKEN field will need to be filled in with the Priority token obtained from AuDA.

If the 3rd level domain is managed by HEXONET but on behalf of a Reseller other than the one submitting the order, this field will be ignored and the token will not be automatically imported even if the field is set to 1.)

• X-AU-REGISTRANT-ID-TYPE and X-AU-REGISTRANT-ID-NUMBER = these 2 fields need to be filled in with the same values used for the 3rd level domain on which the Priority application is based (e.g. if an ABN number was used to register the corresponding com.au domain, then the value ABN and the ABN number need to be added in these 2 fields).

AddDomainApplication command example:

command = AddDomainApplication
class = AU_GRANDFATHERING
domain = yourDomain.au
techcontact0 = (contact)
ownercontact0 = (contact)
admincontact0 = (contact)
billingcontact0 = (contact)
period = (INT)
nameserver0 = (nameserver)
nameserver1 = (nameserver) 
X-AU-PRIORITY-TOKEN = (token) 
X-AU-GRANDFATHERING-TLD = <com.au|net.au|org.au|asn.au|id.au>
X-AU-IMPORT-TOKEN = <1|0> 
X-AU-REGISTRANT-ID-TYPE       = (TEXT)
X-AU-REGISTRANT-ID-NUMBER     = (TEXT)

The below states (provinces) are valid for the state contact field:

• VIC - Victoria
• NSW - New South Wales
• SA - South Australia
• NT - Northern Territory
• WA - Western Australia
• TAS - Tasmania
• ACT - Australian Capital Territory
• QLD - Queensland
• JBT - Jervis Bay Territory

Go Live preorders

To submit a preorder on behalf of a customer without a Priority right for a domain that is not reserved by the Registry, the following additional fields should be included in the AddDomainApplication command:

• CLASS = AU_GOLIVE
• X-AU-REGISTRANT-ID-TYPE = (TEXT) (When the Registrant is an Australian business, accepted values here are ABN/ACN. When the Registrant is a Natural person, the only accepted value here is “PRIVATE”)
• X-AU-REGISTRANT-ID-NUMBER = (TEXT) (When the Registrant is an Australian business, this field needs to contain the ABN/ACN number of the Registrant, in order to allow us to validate it before submitting the registration request to the Registry. When the Registrant is a Natural person, this field can be left blank as the Registrant validation is handled through a separate product that will become available in Q1 2022 well-ahead of the .au launch (see section “Validation of Natural Persons applying to register a .AU domain name” above).

AddDomainApplication command is as follows:

command = AddDomainApplication
class = AU_GOLIVE
domain = yourdomain.au
techcontact0 = (contact)
ownercontact0 = (contact)
admincontact0 = (contact)
billingcontact0 = (contact)
period = (INT)
nameserver0 = (nameserver)
nameserver1 = (nameserver) 
X-AU-REGISTRANT-ID-TYPE       = (TEXT)
X-AU-REGISTRANT-ID-NUMBER     = (TEXT)

Modifying an existing Preorder

Customers can modify preorder applications submitted to HEXONET before they are sent to AuDa using the ModifyDomainApplication command. For instance, this can be used to add the Priority token to the X-AU-PRIORITY-TOKEN field of a Priority application. The extra fields for this command are the same as described above under AddDomainApplication. Additionally, the field “application” is required and should contain the ID of the application that the Reseller wishes to modify. This information is returned on a successful execution of the AddDomainApplication command or by querying the applications. ModifyDomainApplication command example:

command = ModifyDomainApplication
class = AU_GRANDFATHERING | AU_GOLIVE
application = <ID>
X-AU-PRIORITY-TOKEN = <token>
X-AU-IMPORT-TOKEN = <1|0>

Important Information on Billing processes for .AU Priority Preorders

Please note that AuDA charges Priority Applications at the time they are submitted. In those cases where multiple applicants are eligible for the same string, the Registry will accept - and charge - every application that is submitted successfully. When the contention sets are resolved (see section above for details), the applications of the losing applicants will fail. The Registry will not issue any REFUNDS in these cases.

If, however, HEXONET is unable to submit a priority application successfully (due to errors in the data provided, or because the applied-for domain is no longer available for registration), the application fee will be refunded to the Reseller's account. These refunds will, however, be processed manually. We appreciate your patience while we handle these cases.