General Availability

The .au Direct namespace or second level registration is now available to register via the standard online application form and the Order tab within the management console.

.au Direct is the general purpose namespace, available to all those with an Australian presence (entities incorporated or registered to operate in Australia, Australian citizens and permanent residents), and may be used to complement your .edu.au registration whether seeking a shorter URL, an online presence for auxiliary services you provide outside the education and training sector, names not available in other spaces, or brand protection.

Contested Priority Applications

When .au Direct first launched, registrants across the existing Australian namespaces (.edu.au, .gov.au, .com.au, .net.au, .org.au etc) were given the opportunity to apply for their matching .au Direct name prior to general availability.

As there is no hierarchy of rights between the existing namespaces, where there was more than one applicant for a matching .au Direct name, the name is considered to be contested.

Under auDA's current process, contested names are unallocated until only one applicant remains. Priority applications expire on the 20th of September each year, and you must indicate your continued interest by renewing your application annually if you wish to remain in contention for the name. The standard registration fee applies.

You can view the remaining applicants via the auDA Priority status tool.

Options for Resolving Contested Names

• 1. Continue to renew each year in the hopes of being the last applicant.
• 2. Contact the other applicants to try to come to an agreement on the name.

Continuing to Renew

This is effectively a passive approach to securing the name, through continuing to renew the application indefinitely in the hopes other applicants will drop out of contention over time. You may want to consider this if not looking to make your continued interest known to other applicants until after each renewal cycle, or to simply continue to block a name from being allocated for brand protection purposes.

This approach is dependant on auDA not changing the priority allocation process.

To be the last remaining applicant, all other applicants need to have their applications declined. This can be as a result of either not renewing their interest, having the name they applied against lapsing (either through it expiring or being found to be ineligible), or voluntarily withdrawing their application.

Reaching an Agreement

If wanting to proactively resolve the contention, you can contact the other applicant(s) to try to reach an agreement on who should be allocated the name using the publicly available registrant contact details, by searching their domain name on the official WHOIS website. Where an agreement is reached, the applicant(s) relinquishing their interest in the name will need to withdraw their application via the auDA Priority webpage.

This approach is being encouraged by auDA to try to resolve the approximate 4,500 remaining contested names, and does not prevent you from continuing to contest the name and renew your application if no agreement can be reached.

WARNING:
You must continue to hold and be eligible for your matching .edu.au domain name for your priority application to be valid. Withdrawing or failing to renew an application is final and cannot be reversed. Once all other applications have been declined, the remaining applicant will be allocated the name for an initial one-year licence within 24 hours.