40 years of .au

5 March 2026 marks 40 years of .au – a signal of trust online that connects millions of local and global internet users to .au websites and email addresses.

As digital technologies have transformed our lives, .au has supported Australians and Australian businesses with a trusted, recognisable online identity. In 2026, four decades since its introduction, .au is more important than ever, providing a stable foundation for innovation and emerging technologies to support Australia’s digital future.

History of .au

In 1986 the .au domain was created. Management was delegated to Robert Elz at the University of Melbourne.

By the mid-1990s, 50% of Aussie businesses (211,000) had computers* and com.au reached 4,000 registrations.

In 1997, auDA (originally the Australian Doman Name Administration) was established by the Australian internet community, with the aim to administer the .au domain and support its reliable operation.

In 2000, the Australian Government officially endorsed auDA as the administrator of .au.

In 2001, auDA received formal delegation for the administration of .au from ICANN.

In 2002, auDA appointed registry operator, AusRegistry, and accredited a set of registrars, marking the beginning of the modern competition model.

2006 marked 20 years of .au, and competition and policy changes in 2002 led to 252% growth in four years, reaching 710,000 .au domain names.

In 2013, auDA introduced the Information Security Standard (ISS) to improve registrar security and deployed DNSSEC to increase the security of .au.

In 2018, 3.1m .au domain names were transferred to new .au registry operator Afilias (now Identity Digital) - the largest ever single transfer of a top level domain at the time.

In 2021, auDA launched the new .au Licensing Framework and passed 3.3m .au domain names for the first time.

On 24 March 2022, Australia’s newest domain namespace launched with the arrival .au direct.

In 2023, total .au domain name registrations grew by 18% year-on-year, driven by the popularity of
.au direct.

In 2024, auDA and the .au registry operator upgraded the .au registry to a new cloud-based platform providing greater security and resilience.

In 2025, auDA commenced a review of the .au Licensing Rules led by an external Policy Advisory Panel.

2026 marked 40 years of the .au domain, which .au passed 4.3m domain names under management. The Licensing Rules Review continued, with the Panel carrying out community consultation.

.au domain names

Trusted by Australians since 1986.

.au domain names under management

Australia’s go-to online address

With more than 4.3 million .au domain names registered, there's one for every six Australians.

Learn about .au domain names

.au adapts with us

Over time the .au has evolved to reflect the needs of Australians. In 2022, the new, shorter .au direct domain name launched, while over time, namespaces such as oz.au, info.au, archie.au, gw.au, otc.au and telememo.au have been retired.

Explore .au direct

.au punches above its weight

Thanks to its wide adoption and popularity among Australians, .au ranks as the equal 7th most popular country-code top level domain (ccTLD) in the world. That's an impressive outcome considering Australia’s comparatively small population.

Read Why.au?

.au connected worldwide

The .au domain launched on 5 March 1986, but it wasn't until June 1989 that Australia was permanently connected to the internet, via a connection between the University of Melbourne and the University of Hawaii.

Explore Aussie computing history

"It's still downloading"

Australia's first connection to the internet was around 56 kilobits per second (kbps).. Today your home or office gets at least 25 megabits, or 25,000kbps, depending on where you live.

Discover the online '90s

Growing national access

In 2007, just over 20 years after .au was created, 70% of Australians had internet access at home and 61% actively used the internet at home.

See Australian Social Trends research

Early snapshots of .au

Explore websites built using .au domain names via the National Library of Australia's Australian Web Archive (AWA) and see how much .au on the World Wide Web has changed.

auDA's first website

auDA was established as a not-for-profit by the Australian internet community in 1997 to administer .au, and in December 2000, was endorsed by the Australian government. Visit the original auDA website to learn about .au domain names in auDA’s early days.

Explore vintage auDA

ABC news goes online

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) was one of the pioneers of news online in Australia. See how news was viewed by ABC audiences in 1996.

Visit the ABC

Digital government services

In the early 2000s, long before myGov was established, the Australian government hosted a number of government services on the web.

Explore the first myGov

The Prime Minister, online

As the internet developed, many websites began to introduce motion graphics to their websites. See how the Prime Minister used them on pm.gov.au.

See pm.gov.au

University of Melbourne

The .au domain was first operated by the University of Melbourne's IT department. Explore how they improved their website to meet the expectations of late 2000's students.

Visit unimelb

Developing Australian cyber resilience

As the digital world becomes more complex, so do online cyber security threats. See how the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) provided support in the 2010s.

Explore the ASD

Three in four Australian consumers are more likely to trust an Australian business if its website ends in .au.

Half of Australian consumers will only purchase from a business online if it has an Australian website ending in .au.

Why Australians value .au

.au is Australia’s most popular online address, with more than 4.3 million .au domain names registered. Australian consumers consider .au Australian, recognisable and trustworthy, while small businesses choose .au to signal to their customers they are local and credible.

Why.au? Find out