For reasons unknown, auDA have reserved 86 two and three-letter “.au Direct” domain names so no one else can have them.
One reason could be that some of the domains appear on their updated Reserved Policy List (2019). Another reason is surely due to stop confusion with the legacy DNS (eg: c0m.au, etc…).
However, there appears to be some that don’t make sense as to why they’re on the “Reserved by Registry” list?
Here are all the two and three-letter “.au Direct” domains auDA have reserved;
ac.au
cc.au
an.au
aq.au
as.au
at.au
au.au
co.au
ct.au
cx.au
du.au
ed.au
et.au
eu.au
fa.au
fn.au
go.au
gv.au
g0.au
hm.au
ib.au
ic.au
ld.au
mt.au
ne.au
nf.au
nl.au
nw.au
og.au
om.au
or.au
ov.au
qd.au
ql.au
sn.au
sw.au
ta.au
ts.au
va.au
vc.au
vi.au
za.au
0v.au
0z.au
1d.au
5a.au
acl.au
adf.au
adi.au
aet.au
afc.au
aif.au
amf.au
ara.au
asm.au
a5n.au
cdu.au
con.au
c0m.au
edv.au
fnp.au
frc.au
gou.au
g0v.au
icn.au
jbt.au
las.au
met.au
nal.au
nct.au
nel.au
ne1.au
nsv.au
n3t.au
n5w.au
ocg.au
qid.au
q1d.au
ran.au
ta5.au
uni.au
vlc.au
vva.au
v1c.au
0rg.au
3du.au
3dv.au
Weird they only held back this many.
Why not 200,000 more auDA?
Is this a sudden thing auDA have implemented?
Hmm, who created this list? Is it the board at auDA, or just one or two people? Will we see some of these domains owned by private companies down the track?
I spot-checked the list with whois and all the ones that I checked have “Reserved by Registry”
auDA have officially explained why they have reserved these domain names on Twitter today;
1/2 Hi Rob, Reserved Names are outlined at Section 2.6 of the .au Licensing Rules. Reserved Names include words restricted or prohibited under Australian law and names that pose a risk to the security, stability and integrity of .au.
2/2 We consulted on updates to the Reserved Names List regarding the introduction of .au direct in Dec ’21 and Jan ‘22.
2.6.1 The following categories of reserved domain names are not available to be registered as a domain name:
And the names on the “Reserved List” by auDA are posted here – https://www.auda.org.au/policy/reserved-list-policy-2014-06
auDA’s further response was;
“Hi Rob, for security reasons, we do not publish an exhaustive list of all reserved names. The list you have referenced provides a non-exhaustive list of names reserved under Commonwealth legislation.”
That answer for auDA is Bullshit and not covered under Legislature its simply not true.
nothing changes.
SACK THEM ALL