[3] The domain name was originally allocated by Jon Postel, operator of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) to Kevin Robert Elz of Melbourne University in 1986.

It obtained assent from ICANN in 2001,[4] and commenced operating a new competitive regime for domain registration on 1 July 2002.

These panels are convened by auDA and combine public input with industry representation to derive policy.

In December 2017, Afilias won a competitive tender process to take over the running of the registry from AusRegistry.

After the industry's liberalisation in 2002, there is an active competitive market in registrars with a variety of prices and services.

[6] Although the secondary market was initially slow to take off, there have recently been signs of increasing maturity in the .au aftermarket culminating in the record $125,500 sale of investmentproperty.com.au.

The naming rules for .au require registrations under second-level categories that describe a type of entity.

[8] Direct registrations were due to be implemented in 2017, although an ongoing debate on how cybersquatting would be mitigated led to a delay, with a new launch date of 24 March 2022.

[9] Registration of a .au domain is completed through a reseller, known as a registrar, with the registry acting as the wholesale provider.

[14] Three priority categories exist: Eligible domain name holders could apply during an allocated sunrise period commencing 24 March 2022 until 20 September 2022.

[16] Holders of CGDNs must be "a legally registered, not-for-profit entity; and [...] representative of the local community for the purpose of holding the domain name licence.

auDA has been known to suspend or cancel domain registrations that potentially breach this policy in response to public outcry, such as when the Liberal Party redirected Albanese.com.au — the surname of Labor leader Anthony Albanese — to its own homepage in during the 2022 Australian federal election campaign.

[24] auDA maintains a set of formal published policies and rules which apply to all domains registered in the .au namespace.

The new rules provide an "Australian presence" requirement for all domain name holders.

Domain Name Monetisation is defined in the Licensing Rules as the practice of "application for a licence by a Person with the sole purpose of selling, leasing or holding the applied for Domain Name to generate revenue."

[32] The auDRP was adopted in 2016, and applies to all domain names in the Australian open 2LD's registered after 2002.

The decision is made "on the papers" (that is, on the basis of written submissions by the complainant and the respondent) and no hearings are required.

[34] To succeed in a domain name complaint under the auDRP, the complainant must establish all three of the following grounds: There are two remedies available to a successful complainant: If a successful decision is issued, then unless Court proceedings are commenced within 10 business days, the remedy is implemented automatically by the domain name's registrar of record without input from the respondent.

Some Australian territories have their own ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code, and therefore have their own ccTLD as well: As the appropriate authorities were late in recognising the need to manage these, most were registered by entrepreneurs for use as vanity domains unrelated to the locale they serve.

Some Australian local government authorities have adopted *.cc domains as a convenient abbreviation for "City Council".

There are also two geographic top-level domain names assigned to Australia in which are used by individuals and businesses within a particular region, they are:[43] A .ac .ad .ae .af .ag .ai .al .am .ao .aq .ar .as .at .au .aw .ax .az B .ba .bb .bd .be .bf .bg .bh .bi .bj .bm .bn .bo .br .bs .bt .bw .by .bz C .ca .cc .cd .cf .cg .ch .ci .ck .cl .cm .cn .co .cr .cu .cv .cw .cx .cy .cz D .de .dj .dk .dm .do .dz E .ec .ee .eg .er .es .et .eu F .fi .fj .fk .fm .fo .fr G .ga .gd .ge .gf .gg .gh .gi .gl .gm .gn .gp .gq .gr .gs .gt .gu .gw .gy H .hk .hm .hn .hr .ht .hu I .id .ie .il .im .in .io .iq .ir .is .it J .je .jm .jo .jp K .ke .kg .kh .ki .km .kn .kp .kr .kw .ky .kz L .la .lb .lc .li .lk .lr .ls .lt .lu .lv .ly M .ma .mc .md .me .mg .mh .mk .ml .mm .mn .mo .mp .mq .mr .ms .mt .mu .mv .mw .mx .my .mz N .na .nc .ne .nf .ng .ni .nl .no .np .nr .nu .nz O .om P .pa .pe .pf .pg .ph .pk .pl .pm .pn .pr .ps .pt .pw .py Q .qa R .re .ro .rs .ru .rw S .sa .sb .sc .sd .se .sg .sh .si .sk .sl .sm .sn .so .sr .ss .st .su .sv .sx .sy .sz T .tc .td .tf .tg .th .tj .tk .tl .tm .tn .to .tr .tt .tv .tw .tz U .ua .ug .uk .us .uy .uz V .va .vc .ve .vg .vi .vn .vu W .wf .ws Y .ye .yt Z .za .zm .zw .κπ (kp, Cyprus) - .日本 (Nippon, Japan) .bl .bq .eh .mf .su .xk .bv .gb .sj .an .bu .cs .dd .tp .um .yu .zr