.com.au

A .com.au domain is the country code domain extension for Australia. The registry is .au Domain Administration (auDA), and the extension was introduced in 1986. It is well known and widely trusted by Australians, which makes it a strong choice for commercial entities that want to target customers in Australia. Australians spend an average of 10 hours a day on their internet-connected devices at home, school and work.

A .com.au domain supports DNSSEC, which helps protect your visitors against certain forms of tampering with DNS responses. Names can be between 2 and 63 characters long. Registrations run for at least 1 year and can be renewed in 1 year increments, so you can keep the term that suits your budget and plans.

A .com.au domain suits businesses that operate in Australia and hold an Australian Business Number or equivalent. Before you register, confirm that your business meets the eligibility rules, because they must be kept for the whole licence period. Internationalised names are not allowed under this extension.

Registration is restricted to commercial entities with a local presence in Australia.

• Your organisation must hold an Australian Business Number (ABN) or an Australian Company Number (ACN).
• Non-Australian companies can register with an international trademark that has Australian coverage.
• The owner contact must provide a valid ABN.

Your domain needs to be renewed before it expires to keep the name.

• If your domain lapses, you have a 30-day grace period after expiry to renew it.
• There is no separate redemption period.
• After the grace period ends, the name is purged and released for others to register.

You can transfer an existing .com.au domain to Domain Central from another provider.

• You need the password (authorisation code) from your current registrar or from auDA.
• Transfers between registrars are free.
• Transfers are usually completed on the same day once the password is supplied.

Changing the registrant of a domain is treated as a new licence.

• Transferring the licence to a new registrant cancels the old licence and issues a new one.
• The term restarts from the date of the change.

• .au Domain Administration Limited (auDA), the administrator of the .au namespace: https://www.auda.org.au/
• The registry is operated by Identity Digital Australia under contract to auDA.
• Public WHOIS lookups: https://www.auda.org.au/au-domain-names/au-tools/au-whois/
• Authorisation code retrieval for registrants: https://pw.auda.org.au/
• Postal address deliberately left out — confirm auDA’s current address before
  publishing it, this field is low priority per the brief.