As of 20/08/2021
.au domain name regulatory authority auDA has announced that second level .au domain names will be made available from 24 March 2022. The move follows the precedent of other ccTLDs such as the United Kingdom (.uk), Canada (.ca), United States (.us), etc.
This means that one can get a domain name YourName.au, which earlier wasn’t available. Earlier you could only get a third level .au domain name, such as .com.au, .org.au, .gov.au, etc.
.au domain names will be made available for Australians businesses, groups, entities and government organizations. However, there was a concern that existing users would have to shift from their current domain name to a new domain name, which can create a lot of confusion and nuisance.
auDA has come up with a Priority Allocation to combat this. Under it, a 6 month period will be given to the existing third level domain name holders to secure their .au domain name. But what happens when two different .au extensions have the same third level name. As for example what happens when there is a YourName.com.au and a YourName.org.au. To whom does YourName.au go in such a case? Under such a case, the name would be allocated through Priority Allocation Process.
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