It has been a long time coming but finally direct .au domains are available.

As well as having 123Host.com.au or 123Host.net.au, I now have the short, sweet and cool (I think) 123Host.au

The process to register a direct .au domain is a little confusing, here is the (hopefully) understandable version.

If you want to register example.au you can try as long as there is no other example.??.au domains registered.

If a domain does already exist such as example.com.au then there is a specific procedure to register example.au. The first and most important thing is for the owner of the .com.au to get a token from https://priority.auda.org.au/. These tokens prove that you are the owner of the .com.au.

If you are the only person who has example.??.au then you will get the direct .au immediately.

However if someone else has example.net.au then this page https://www.auda.org.au/tools/priority-status-tool explains the process to sort out who gets the direct .au.

Should you own .com.au and .net.au then the trick is to apply for .au with one of them and decline to apply with the other.

Let’s add one more thing…if you don’t own example.??.au and want example.au and no one else applies for it. you can register it after September 20th. I can help you get to the front of the queue.

Yeah it is complex and confusing. I am wrapping my brain around it and can help, contact me at 123host.au (see what I did there?)