.au
 |
|
| Introduced | 1986 |
|---|---|
| TLD type | Country code top-level domain |
| Status | Active |
| Registry | Various |
| Sponsor | .au Domain Administration (auDA) |
| Intended use | Entities connected with  Australia
|
| Actual use | Very popular in Australia |
| Registered domains | 3,068,471 (January 2017) |
| Registration restrictions | Limited to individuals, companies, and organisations located in Australia; different subdomains have various other restrictions |
| Structure | Names may be registered only at the third level within generic second-level categories |
| Documents | IANA report on redelegation; ICANN registry agreement |
| Dispute policies | .au Dispute Resolution Policy (auDRP), Complaints (Registrant Eligibility) Policy |
| Website | auDA; AusRegistry |
.au is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Australia. It was first created on 5 March 1986. Domain name policy is managed by .au Domain Administration (auDA), with the registry operated by AusRegistry.
The domain name was originally allocated by Jon Postel, operator of IANA to Kevin Robert Elz of Melbourne University in 1986. After an approximately five-year process in the 1990s, the Internet industry created a self-regulatory body called .au Domain Administration to operate the domain. It obtained assent from ICANN in 2001, and commenced operating a new competitive regime for domain registration on 1 July 2002. Since this new regime, any registration has to be ordered via a registrar.
Oversight of .au is by .au Domain Administration (auDA). It is a not-for-profit organisation whose membership is derived from Internet organisations, industry members and interested individuals. The organisation operates with the endorsement of the Australian Government and with the delegated authority of ICANN.
Policy for .au is devised by policy development panels. These panels are convened by auDA and combine public input with industry representation to derive policy. The day-to-day operation of the .au registry technical facility is tendered out by auDA. The current operator is AusRegistry who has performed this role since the initial tender in 2002. AusRegistry does not sell domain registration services direct to the consumer, rather consumers who wish to register a domain must do so via a domain name registrar. After the industry's liberalisation in 2002, there is an active competitive market in registrars with a variety of prices and services.
...
Wikipedia