Abhishek Sharma

Abhishek is the Director of Audit and Assurance here at MGI Dobbyn Carafa and is a registered company auditor. He works primarily with large organisations and not-for-profit entities to assist with all matters in relation to audit and assurance.

Do you have your .au domain name registered?

Priority access to your domain closes on 20 September 2022

The big website news of 2022 is the change to the Australian domain name conventions. Put simply, if you have a “.com” or “com.au” or “.net.au” etc at the end of your domain name then you need to register the “.au” version eg “abc.com = abc.au”, “abc.com.au = abc.au” etc. Existing domain name license holders have been provided priority to register the “.au” direct equivalent of their domain names until 20 September 2022, after which your “.au” domain name will become available to the general public.

Some common questions

What are the changes to Australian domain names?

From 24 March 2022, Australians have access to shorter and simpler domain names with the introduction of direct .au domain names.

Previously, it was only possible to license lower level .au domain names, such as com.au, net.au, org.au, and so on.

This means you’re now able to register and use a shorter domain name, such as yourbusiness.au rather than yourbusiness.com.au.

If you already have a domain name ending in .au, and you registered it before 24 March 2022, the matching .au direct domain has been placed on a 6-month priority hold for you – meaning that you have the first choice to register it.

So, for example, if Joe owns joesbusiness.com.au and it was registered before 24 March 2022, he has priority until 20 September 2022 to register joesbusiness.au as well.

After this priority period, the .au domain will become available to the general public on a ‘first come, first served’ basis.

It’s for this reason that the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) recommends that all Australian businesses with existing domain names register the .au equivalents.

In addition to protecting your cybersecurity, shorter and simpler domains can be helpful for branding and marketing, making them more memorable to your customers and clients.

Who is eligible for a .au domain?

To be eligible for a .au domain, you must have a current Australian presence. This includes:

an Australian registered company
an Australian partnership or sole trader
an owner of an Australian registered trade mark
an Australian registered charity
an Australian registered political party
a trust where the trustee is an Australian citizen
a foreign company licensed to trade in Australia
a permanent Australian resident or citizen (not supported at the time of launch)

A domain name ending in the .au namespace (com.au, .net.au, .org.au, .edu.au etc.) tells us that the business, organisation or individual using it has a connection to Australia. There are also specific rules around whether you can register domains in the .au namespace.

You’ll see businesses and companies using domains such as .com.au or .net.au, a charity using .org.au and governments using .gov.au, as some examples.

These rules are administered by the .au Domain Administration, known as the auDA, a not-for-profit organisation that works with a range of stakeholders including industry, government and the Australian and international community.

How much does a .au domain name cost?

auDA lists the wholesale price of a .au domain at $8.67 per year including GST. Registrars set the retail price so it’s worth shopping around to find a registrar with a competitive price and whose services meet your needs.

You should also be aware that the initial registration price may change or increase when it comes time to renew.

Generally, you can register a domain name for between one and 5 years, with extensions available if you continue to meet the eligibility requirements for the domain.

How can you reserve a .au direct domain during the priority period?

The .au direct domain priority period runs from 24 March 2022 to 20 September 2022.

During this time, you can:

apply for the exact match of any existing .au domain name that you are the registrant of. If there is more than one claim to the same domain, such as the registrants of businessname.com.au and businessname.net.au both applying, these names will be allocated according to the Priority Allocation Process.
register new .au direct names that are not already registered in the .au registry (i.e. names are not registered in any existing .au namespace such as com.au or org.au etc.)

You can reserve your .au domain name through your existing domain name registrar, or by visiting any auDA accredited registrar.

Once your application is approved, you should be able to complete your registration and start using the .au direct domain shortly after that.

What happens if I miss the priority cutoff?

Doing nothing means that means you may provide another opportunity for cybercriminals – eg

Facilitating fraudulent activity like Business Email Compromise
Allowing cybersquatting aka holding your domain name hostage until you pay-up, don’t be like Westpac and find out the hard way as it can be a costly mistake in more ways than one
Use your “.au” website for nefarious purposes eg impersonating your business to conduct financial fraud

This could create an opportunity for someone to impersonate your business and conduct fraudulent cyber activity, such as creating a fake website or sending emails to people pretending to be your business.

Your clients might not spot that the invoice they’ve just received was from accounts@yourbusiness.au and not your actual email address accounts@yourbusiness.com.au.

Activity such as this can result in you and your clients losing money and it can also be a hit to your reputation and the level of trust your clients have with you.

Tracing cybercriminals can be difficult, and it can also be complicated to regain a domain name once it is registered to someone else, so as always, prevention is key.

The new .au domain names can be a good opportunity for you to secure a shorter website name for your business, helping you appeal to clients, create trust and improve your marketing.

Next steps

One small investment that can result in the exponential hardening of your business website:

Register your “.au” domain – you only have until 20 September. You can reserve your “.au” direct domain name by visiting your usual accredited registrar. Your IT or Cyber Security provider should be able to answer any questions if you have any issues or concerns.

At MGI Dobbyn Carafa, we can assist you in all matters business. For a confidential discussion, please use the link below and let us buy you a coffee to discuss your requirements.