Australian Domain Names

If you have a business in Australia or are thinking of starting a business in Australia, here is a little information on Australian Domain Names.

Australia has much tighter regulations on who can purchase Australian domains, .au is the top level domain extension for Australia, but these have been broken down to second level domain names by auDA, the Australian domain name authority.

The most common Australian names you may have seen on the internet are .com.au, .net.au and .org.au.

If you are a business that operates only in Australia, then a .com.au name is for you. If the name is already taken, you could go for a .net.au domain name. If your business deals world wide, then securing both the .com and the .com.au would be the best move. The .com name is the top level domain, so potentially could rank higher in the search engines, which you don't want your competition to get hold of.

Remember, that domain names can be valuable real estate and can be quite valuable in time, especially if your domain name is keyword related. e.g. business.com.au etc.

As the Australian domain market has been tightly regulated over the years there are still plenty of great domain names available that could potentially be worth quite a bit of money.

So if you:

• Are an Australian resident
• And have an ABN

Then your set to start building your Australian domain name empire!

com.au
For commercial purposes. Includes commercial entities, currently registered and trading in Australia, as well as commercial products and services. You must be an Australian resident with an ABN to purchase one of these domains.

net.au
For commercial purposes. Includes commercial entities, currently registered and trading in Australia, as well as commercial products and services. Almost all of the domains in this domain type tend to be net/communications related. You must be an Australian resident with an ABN to purchase one of these domains.

org.au
For non-commercial purposes. Includes not-for-profit organisations, charities, churches, welfare groups etc. You need to proof that you run a non-profit business in Australia to be able to purchase these domain names.

asn.au
For 'associations'. Includes associations incorporated under specific state legislation, some incorporated bodies, political parties, trade unions, sporting and special interest clubs and 'partnerships' between disparate organisations. As with .org.au names, you need to provide proof that you operate a registered organisation or special interest club in Australia to purchase these domains.

id.au
For individuals. No restrictions for purchasing these names. These can be used for non business purposes, such as blogs or other personal use.

As well as the above domain names, there are also more domain name types that are unavailable for purchase specifically for government and educational sites.

gov.au
For exclusive use by Australian governments. Eligibility is demonstrated by reference to an Act of Parliament or government regulation. e.g. http://www.business.gov.au

edu.au
For education-related bodies. Eligibility is demonstrated by sufficient evidence, as determined by the registrar, that the requesting body is education-related. e.g. http://www.edna.edu.au

csiro.au
For CSIRO research websites. e.g. http://www.cmar.csiro.au