auDA notes that, according to Verisign, the growth has placed the .au in the top 10 largest country code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs) in the world by number, just ahead of Italy and behind ccTLDs including France, Brazil, Russia and the Netherlands.

Rosemary Sinclair’s comments are contained in the auDA Q2 2022 report published today covering auDA’s progress and achievements over the quarter, including:

• Strong community take-up of .au direct domain names
• 170,000 .au direct names registered by the end June 2022
• Supported by continued awareness raising, including for the priority period (ending on 20 Sept 2022)
• Total .au domain names under management passed 3.6 million for the first time
• More than 218,000 new .au domain names were created in the quarter, up 55 per cent from Q2 2021
• Continued focus on delivering a trusted .au, including through increased compliance audit activity
• Participation at the ICANN74 Policy Forum on internet governance.

Sinclair says that auDA was heartened to see Australians welcome .au direct at launch and the continued growth in Q2, and “we cotinue to raise awareness of .au direct among the community, through our channels, and in partnership with auDA accredited registrars”.

“This includes providing continued information to existing registrants on the Priority Allocation process.

“Priority Allocation allows registrants of .au domain names licensed before the launch of .au direct on 24 March 2022 priority to apply for their matching .au direct domain name. It runs until 20 September 2022, after which, .au direct domain names will become available for registration by the general public.”

Sinclair said building trust in .au is a key focus for auDA each quarter and Q2 was no exception.

“To this end, we continued working with auDA accredited registrars on their security and validation requirements and undertook activity to further reduce already low levels of DNS abuse in .au.

“Our Compliance Team also carried out 961 audits to validate .au registration details, a more than 40 per cent increase on the same period in 2021. This audit activity improves our ability to ensure our robust registration requirements are being met, supporting community confidence in .au.

“During the quarter, we were pleased to host two .au member events, in each of Brisbane and Sydney, and numerous member and community webinars. These events are a valuable way for auDA to engage with stakeholders and update them on the Australian and international Internet ecosystem.

“The member webinars are held for our .au member community and are one of the many benefits of the membership program. Growing and diversifying our membership base to reflect the Australian community is an important priority for us.

“In May, we launched an awareness campaign to encourage those interested in .au or internet governance to sign-up as a member. While we did not meet our ambitious growth targets, we were thrilled to welcome many new members in the quarter, taking us to a record membership of more than 4,800 members.

“Over the period, we also continued our outreach to existing .au members, inviting them to opt-in to our new terms and conditions, ahead of the transition to our new membership model in September 2022. We hope all existing members will join us under the new model. More information about this process is available on our website.”