From: Owners Representative (NDIR) [ChrisR@daydream.net.au] Sent: Monday, 26 August 2002 5:19 PM To: jo.lim@auda.org.au Subject: daydreamisland.com.au Jo Lim Chief Policy Officer .au Domain Administration Ltd (auDA) ph 03 9349 4711 mob 0410 553 233 jo.lim@auda.org.au I would appreciate your advice. Daydream Island is a common name of the island that was West Molle Island, and is completely controlled by our company. As such it is "private" property, rather than being a "public" place. We are unique in the Whitsundays for this reason, and even the liquor licence covers the entire island. The other resorts, such as Hamilton; South Molle and Hayman, are leases of a portion of the island, the balance of which is national park. We already have the domain name daydream.net.au and have recovered the name daydreamisland.com from a cybersquatter, the registration of which is in the process of being finalised. Obviously, having daydreamisland.com, we would like to be able to obtain the domain name here of daydreamisland.com.au. Given the circumstances, is there an appeal process where we can put the case that no one else has a right to the use of the name Daydream Island, such as in the examples you have given, without having to wait for the deliberations of the New Names Panel?" I have just looked up the phone book and confirmed that Daydream Island is listed with a postcode - something I did not know. However if you look at the Mackay Mail Centre, you will see that is the same postcode - 4741. Mackay is 150 kilometres from here and that is our mailing address at a Private Mail Bag at the Mackay Mail centre. Our mail comes by road from there and then by boat across to the island. We do not have a post office or postal agency on the island. when I look further it is interesting to note the following Postcodes Domain names Hayman Island 4801 hayman.com.au Airlie Beach 4802 (nearest township) Hamilton Island 4803 (with its own post office hamiltonisland.com.au South Molle 4741 southmolleresort.com.au Daydream Island 4741 Mackay Mail Centre 4741 I assume then that the postcode = geographic name was not backdated to cover Hamilton Island. Having now read the discussion paper on the OCOS model, I can appreciate the purpose of the committee in reserving place names. However, from the foregoing, you will see that there can be some anomalies in applying the proposed OCOS model. We are obviously a commercial organization, but as noted above, our company controls the entire "geographic Location" As also pointed out, the naming of this location as Daydream Island was not the official name for many years and still appears on marine charts as West Molle Island. There is obviously no "community" to be protected in our case as all residents of the island must be employees (there being a limited amount of staff accommodation, with a majority of staff commuting from the nearby Airlie Beach region). My search of the competitors shows that Hamilton Island is using as their primary web site the domain name of Hamiltonisland.com.au. They are of course our major competitor in the region and it would be a restraint op our trade not to be able to register a domain name that reflects our business name (as they have done), despite it also being a place name. In Hamilton Island's case they do not have control of the entire island (as we do here) as a large portion is national park. Further, there is a web site in existence as "daydream-island.com.au" that is operated by a company unrelated to us and purports to market accommodation here, without our express approval and consent. How then are hamiltonisland.com.au and daydream-island.com.au been able to be registered under your guidelines which deny us as owners of the island the ability to register daydreamisland.com.au. Although laudable in its ideals of protecting "communities" I do feel that there needs to be recourse to an appeal process, where demonstrably there is no "community" in existence. The criteria of "Basically if it's got a postcode then it's a geographic name" is also not infallible, as I have noted above. South Molle, which is a totally separate island from Daydream, and the Mackay Mail Centre, in a city some 150 kilometres away, all have the same postcode. This would appear to be for the convenience of the post office, as both South Molle and we have no postal facility and use a private mailbag at Mackay for our mailing address. Hamilton Island, on the other hand, with a "community" of over 1000 souls and a separate post office and its own distinct postal code, has been allowed to register its placename.com.au. Sincerely, Chris Richardson Owners' Representative