.org.au Domain
Australia's Domain for Organisations
Register your .org.au domain from just £14.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included with every domain.
This domain has registration restrictions
Only Australian not-for-profit entities may hold a .org.au, and both the not-for-profit status and the Australian presence have to last for the whole licence period. Read the full eligibility rules.
What is a .org.au domain?
The .org.au extension is Australia's domain for non-profit organisations, charities, and community groups. Managed by .au Domain Administration (auDA), it carries strong trust signals with Australian internet users. Registration requires an Australian presence: you need an ABN, ACN, or equivalent registration. This restriction keeps the namespace credible. Australia's internet market has over 22 million users, and .org.au is the expected domain for any not-for-profit operating there.
Who should register .org.au?
Australian charities, non-profit organisations, community groups, and associations with an ABN or ACN.
Why choose .org.au?
- Official Australian domain for non-profits
- Managed by auDA with strict eligibility rules
- Trusted by 22+ million Australian internet users
- Clear non-commercial identity in the .au namespace
Who runs .org.au, and since when
Registry data from the .org.au delegation record held by IANA, which maintains the internet's root zone. Eligibility comes from the registry's own policy, and the prices are ours.
- Extension type
- Country-code (ccTLD)
- Registered under the .au zone
- Registry operator
- .au Domain Administration (auDA)
- The organisation that runs the extension
- .au delegated
- 1986
- The date belongs to the .au zone, not to .org.au itself
- Who can register
- Australian not-for-profit entities only, with a continuing Australian presence
- Checked against the registry's own policy
- Our price
- £14.99 a year
- Ex VAT. Renews at the same price
Why .org.au is limited to Australian not-for-profits
The rule that catches people out is not the Australian one. Under the auDA Licensing Rules, paragraph 2.4.6(1), an applicant for a .org.au licence must be a Not for Profit Entity: a charity on the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission register, an incorporated association, a political party, a trade union and the other listed types. A trading company cannot take a .org.au because the name happens to be free, which makes this stricter than .org almost anywhere else in the world.
Australian presence is the second test, and it does not stop at the point of sale. Paragraph 2.4.1(1) requires it across every .au namespace, and paragraph 2.11.5 states that a person must continue to have an Australian presence throughout the licence period. Eighteen categories qualify, among them Australian citizens and permanent residents, companies registered under the Corporations Act, holders of an Australian Business Number, incorporated associations, ACNC charities, partnerships with at least one Australian partner and trusts with Australian trustees. An Australian trade mark also establishes presence, but only for a domain name that is an exact match of the mark.
Then the name itself has to earn its place. Paragraph 2.4.6(2) requires the domain to match or be a synonym of your legal, business or statutory name, a service you provide, a programme you administer, an event you register or sponsor, an activity you facilitate, premises you operate or an occupation your members practise, or to be an acronym of one of those, or an Australian trade mark. Grabbing a generic keyword sits outside the rules.
Lose eligibility and paragraph 2.11.7 lets the registrar or auDA suspend or cancel the licence. A UK charity fundraising in Australia without an Australian entity should register the .org and put its Australian work there.
Who is allowed to register .org.au?
Only Australian not-for-profit entities may hold a .org.au, and both the not-for-profit status and the Australian presence have to last for the whole licence period.
- Not for Profit Entity only
- Paragraph 2.4.6(1) restricts .org.au to a Not for Profit Entity, a defined term that covers charities on the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission register, incorporated associations, political parties, trade unions and a short list of similar bodies. A company limited by shares is outside it.
- Australian presence, continuing
- Paragraph 2.4.1(1) requires an Australian presence and paragraph 2.11.5 requires it to continue throughout the licence period. Eighteen categories qualify, including ABN holders, incorporated associations, ACNC charities, partnerships with an Australian partner and trusts with Australian trustees.
- A narrow trade mark route
- An Australian trade mark application or registration establishes presence only in respect of a domain name that is an exact match of the mark. A foreign organisation cannot use one Australian trade mark as a licence to register a family of related names.
- The name has to connect
- Paragraph 2.4.6(2) requires the domain to match or be a synonym of your legal, business or statutory name, a service, programme, event, activity, premises or occupation you are actually behind, an acronym of one of those, or an Australian trade mark you hold.
- If you stop qualifying
- Paragraph 2.11.7 allows the registrar or auDA to suspend or cancel the licence when the holder is no longer eligible. A charity that deregisters, or an association that winds up and re-forms as a company, can lose the domain even though nothing about the website changed.
Rules taken from the auDA .au Domain Administration Rules: Licensing. Registry policy can change, so check before you buy if the answer matters to you.
Not sure whether you qualify? Ask us before you order and we will check the registry rules with you. We would rather answer the question than take an order the registry will refuse.
Is .org.au the right choice for you?
We would rather sell you the right extension once than the wrong one twice.
.org.au works well if
- You are an Australian registered charity, incorporated association or community group and you want the address Australian donors and members expect to see.
- Your organisation is Australian and non-commercial, and you would rather the extension itself separated you from the .com.au businesses in the same field.
- You want the eligibility rules working for you: a namespace where every neighbour has had to prove not-for-profit status is harder for imitators to enter.
- You already hold the .org and want the Australian address for local campaigns, local grant applications and local search.
Look elsewhere if
- You are a company. .org.au is closed to trading entities regardless of how community-minded the project is, and a registration made anyway can be suspended or cancelled.
- You are a UK charity with Australian supporters but no Australian entity. The presence test is continuing, so the risk does not go away after the first year.
- You wanted a memorable generic keyword. The allocation criteria tie the name to your own legal name, services, programmes, events, premises or trade mark, so speculative names are refused.
Not an Australian entity, or not a not-for-profit? The .org carries the same meaning to a reader and asks nothing of your legal structure. See .org pricing.
.org.au vs .com.au: which should you register?
Both sit under .au and both demand an Australian presence that lasts for the licence period, so the difference is not about geography. It is about what you are. .com.au is open to Australian businesses generally; .org.au is limited to Not for Profit Entities as auDA defines them.
That makes the choice unusually simple. If your organisation is a registered charity, an incorporated association, a union or a political party, .org.au is available and says something a .com.au cannot. If you are a company, .org.au is not an option to weigh up, it is an application that will be refused or a licence that can later be cancelled.
The one grey area is a social enterprise trading through a company while doing charitable work. Read paragraph 2.4.6(1) against your own constitution before you order, and if the answer is a company, take the .com.au and let the copy on the page carry the mission.
| .org.au | .com.au | |
|---|---|---|
| Who may register | Australian not-for-profit entities | Australian businesses generally |
| Australian presence | Required, and continuing | Required, and continuing |
| Name must connect | Yes, to your name or activities | Yes, to your name or activities |
| If you stop qualifying | Suspended or cancelled | Suspended or cancelled |
| Signal to a reader | Non-commercial, Australian | Commercial, Australian |
.org.au domain questions, answered
What people ask us before registering a .org.au domain.
Can't find what you're looking for?
Ask us directlyOnly through an Australian entity. The auDA rules require an Australian presence that continues for the whole licence period, and a UK charity number does not provide one. The realistic options are an Australian arm registered with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission, an incorporated association, or an Australian trade mark, and the trade mark route only supports a domain that exactly matches the mark. Without one of those, the .org is the sensible address for your Australian pages.
The rules list eighteen qualifying categories. The common ones are Australian citizenship or permanent residency, a company registered under the Corporations Act, an Australian Business Number, an incorporated association under state or territory law, a charity on the ACNC register, a partnership with at least one Australian partner, and a trust with Australian trustees. Government bodies, cooperatives, Indigenous corporations and Australian-regulated educational institutions also qualify. An Australian trade mark counts too, but only for an exact-match domain.
No. Paragraph 2.4.6(1) limits .org.au to a Not for Profit Entity, and a company limited by shares is not one however the business describes itself. This trips up social enterprises and B Corps in particular, because the mission reads charitable while the legal structure is commercial. Read the definition against your own constitution before you order. If the answer is a company, .com.au is the correct namespace and .org.au would be at risk of cancellation.
Paragraph 2.11.7 allows the registrar or auDA to suspend or cancel the licence once the holder is no longer eligible, and the presence requirement in paragraph 2.11.5 runs for the whole licence period rather than being checked once at the start. In practice that means restructuring, deregistering as a charity or letting an incorporated association lapse can put a live website at risk. Tell your registrar before a restructure, not after, so the name can be moved to a qualifying entity.
Included with Your .org.au Domain
DNS Management
Full DNS zone editor to manage A, CNAME, MX, TXT, and all record types.
Email Forwarding
Set up professional email addresses and forward to any inbox.
Auto-Renewal
Never lose your domain with automatic renewal protection.
Free 10GB Mailbox
One 10GB mailbox (POP3/IMAP) included with every domain, on any TLD.
Other Geographic Domains Extensions
Register your .org.au domain today
Secure your .org.au domain from just £14.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included.
