.au
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| Status: | Active |
| country: | Australia |
| Manager: | auDA |
| Registry Provider: | auDA |
| Date Implemented: | 1986 |
| Type: | ccTLD |
More information: 
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.au is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Australia and is managed and operated by .au Domain Administration (auDA), a not-for-profit policy authority and self-regulating body endorsed by the Australian government. The .au ccTLD is one of the top 10 largest country codes in world, with more 2 million registered domain names as of March 2011.[1]
A 2011 study by Deloitte found that the .au ccTLD contributed $475 million to the country's economy, 57% of that, or $269 million is directly related to the registration and hosting of the domains.[2]
As of 2011, There were 2.3 million registered .au domain names, which is up 600% total increase from 2002.[3]
Background
In 1986, the .au ccTLD was established and was delegated by the Internet Assigned Number Authority (IANA) to Kevin Robert Elz, a network programmer from the University of Melbourne, who served as the manager of .au ccTLD as a volunteer. Under his management, the use of .au increased and in order to meet the strong demands for convenient names under the .au ccTLD, eleven second-level domains were created: asn.au, com.au, conf.au, csiro.au, edu.au, gov.au, id.au, info.au, net.au, org.au, and oz.au.[4]
Establishment of auDA
In 1997, the internet community in Australia realized that Mr. Elz could no longer handle the management of the growing .au ccTLD alone and formed the Australian Domain Name Administration (ADNA), a private, self-regulating body, to ensure the efficient operation of the Australian domain name. The organization, however, admitted that they did not have the necessary power to be be accountable to the local internet community and effectively operate the ccTLD. ADNA and the local internet community approached the Australian Commonwealth government through the National Office for the Information Economy (NOIE) to help them establish a more effective self-regulating body to oversee Australia's internet industry domain space.[5]
The Australian government agreed to assist ADNA and conducted a consultation addressing key issues in 1999, in order to develop a comprehensive mechanism to ensure the effective oversight and administration of the .au TLD. The consultation process was led by Greg Crew, who was Director of ICANN at that time. The Australian Domain Administration (auDA), a new non-profit organization, was formed.[6] auDA was officially established on December 2000 through the endorsement of the Australian government.[7] Mr. Elz was subsequently assigned to manage the .com.au name space on November 15, 1999.[8]
.au Registry
AusRegistry Pty Ltd. was authorized by auDA to operate the open 2LDs: .com.au, .net.au, .id.au, .asn.au and .org.au, as well as the government (.gov.au) and education (.edu.au) domain names until 2014.[9] The .au registry is composed of a database of domain names registered in each 2LD and a public WHOIS service.
auDA and ICANN
In 2001, ICANN re-delegated the .au ccTLD to auDA. Chris Disspain, CEO of auDA, served as Chairman of ICANN's country code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO), from 2003 until he was elected to serve on the ICANN Board in 2010. [10]