In March 2022, the .au Domain Administration (auDA) introduced second-level .au domains, which allowed anyone with an Australian presence to access website domains such as businessname.au instead of .com.au, .net.au or .org.au.

Anyone with an existing .au website registered before 24 March 2022 was given a 6-month priority hold over its .au direct equivalent. That period will end on Tuesday 20 September.

Registering the .au direct domain is not mandatory. However, after this priority hold period ends, the domain will become available to the public.