What Are the New .au Domains? How Do I Register My .au Business Domain Name?

The Clickify team has received many inquiries recently about the new direct .au domain names with clients wanting to know how to apply to reserve the .au variation of their business domain names.

We’ve prepared this update to help you understand exactly what is involved now that .au direct domain registration is available for Australian businesses and what the process is to apply for them. 

What Are .au Domains?

On 24 March 2022, the governing body for .au Domain Administration (auDA), released the new direct .au domains to the Australian public.

If you already have, for example, clickify.com.au and clickify.net.au domains, you may like to consider clickify.au for brand protection and to redirect any traffic from this domain to your main website.

Whether you are a small business or a corporation, your website is an important asset.

Registration Is Now Open

For brands with an Australian presence, the registration period to apply for their .au direct name is now open. It’s possible there can be more than one registrant eligible for a .au direct name.

There is a Priority Application Process period which runs until 9:59 AM AEST 21st September 2022. This is reserved for existing registrants who hold the matching keyword for an existing .au domain name. If no applications are made by this date, it will become available for anyone in the general public to register at 8:00AM AEDT 4th October 2022.

Most reputable domain name registrars are offering .au domain registrations and can assist with the priority application process. So you can contact your current registrar for your domain names for more information.

Otherwise, the Clickify team is happy to assist you and our Clickify Cloud customers with this application service. The lodging fee to submit an application is $15.95 (including GST) and if uncontested the fee includes 12 months of registration.

Please note, there is no obligation to register for a .au direct domain.

Your existing domain names will continue to operate as normal, per auDA policy, regardless of whether you take up the option to register the matching .au direct domain name. It is entirely your personal preference whether you choose to apply.

What to Do If You Want to Apply For .au Domain(s)?

If you are keen to further protect your business’s Australian identity online, help attract local search and protect your brand, we recommend applying for the .au domain extension.

Clickify clients can register via their Clickify Cloud account. If you don’t have an account you can register for a free account here: Register – Clickify Cloud.

It may not be as simple as just registering the .au domain if other people have a similar domain in the au namespace.

The team at Clickify is here to help make it easier and less confusing. The following is a step-by-step guide to walk you through the process. However, if you need help with this, please skip to the Need Help? section at the end of this page.

Step 1 – Check to See If Your .au Domain Is Contested or Uncontested

If there is no existing .au domain registered or you have registered the only domain with another Australian extension, then the domain will be Uncontested and you can register the domain now.

To check if it’s available to register straight away use this tool –
– Priority Status Tool | auDA

Enter the .au domain name you are looking to register or your existing Australian extension domain e.g. clickify.au or clickify.com.au and click on Priority Search.

Your .au domain will fall into one of these 3 classifications:

1. Your domain name can be applied for by the current registrant – this means you need to complete Step 2 – Apply for a Priority Token to register the .au domain name
2. Your domain name is not currently reserved for priority allocation – this means you can complete Step 3 – Register your Uncontested .au domain
3. Your domain name is Contested if you see your domain and others in ‘Priority category 1 or 2’ (as per the example below.) We recommend you complete Step 4 – Contact Clickify and ask us to apply for your Contested domain(s) as this process can be quite complicated.

If the result is:

‘The domain name clickify.au is not currently reserved for priority allocation.‘

or

‘The domain name clickify.au can be applied for by the current registrant of…‘

you can register that .au domain name now. In the second example you would need to make sure you are the current registrant of the other domain variation (e.g .com.au, .net.au, .org.au etc).

If you see other domains in ‘Priority Category 1 or 2’ then you will need to submit an application to Contest the registration of the domain.

Step 2 – Apply for a Priority Token

Where you already hold a domain in this space e.g. clickify.com.au and clickify.net.au you need to visit this link https://priority.auda.org.au/ to apply for your .au Priority Token.

This will send an email from .au Technical Support [email protected] to the Registrant email addresses configured for the domain to verify that you are the owner of the existing domain.

Record the Priority contact ID and Priority authInfo from the link in the email as you will need these codes when registering your .au domain.

Step 3 – Register Your Uncontested .au Domain

Either perform this step with your current domain name registrar or provider otherwise you can register .au domains via your Clickify Cloud account. If you don’t have an account you can register for a free account here: Register – Clickify Cloud

Once registered, login to your account at Login – Clickify Cloud and then click on Register a New Domain from the Shortcuts menu on the left-hand side.

Enter the domain name you wish to register, complete the reCAPTCHA and click on Search.

If the domain is available to apply to register, click on Add to Cart and then Checkout.

In the top section of this form tick the option to enable DNS Management.

Enter the Registrant Name, Registrant ID, Registrant ID Type and Eligibility Type (using the same details you used for your .com.au, .net.au domain, etc.).

Select your Eligibility Reason (using the same details you used for the .com.au, .net.au domain etc.).

Ensure you enter the Priority contact ID and Priority authInfo codes you obtained from the .au Priority Token tool.

In the section called ‘Nameservers’ you can just leave the default nameservers unless you know which specific Nameservers you want to use.

Click on Continue, then Checkout and enter your payment information and then click on Complete Order.

You will then see an Order Confirmation that looks like this below:

Your new .au domain will now be registered and you will also receive email confirmation.

Step 4 – How to Apply for Your Contested Domain(s)

For further information about Contested names please review the https://www.auda.org.au/au-domain-names/au-direct/priority-allocation-process