landmarks

This chronology highlights the development of the dot-au domain administration regime.

It covers -

• 1986 - beginnings of dot-au
• 1990 - first delegation of 2LD administration
• 1995 - beginnings of mass uptake
• 1997 - establishment of ADNA
• 2000 - auDA and the 'Safety Net' Act
• 2003 - first auDRP rulings
• 2006 - launch of the auCD

Context is provided by the broader communications, information technology and media timeline on this site. There is also a basic chronology for ICANN, the UDRP and ACPA.

     1986

dot-au TLD delegated to Melbourne University's Robert Elz by Jonathan Postel

     1989

Australian Academic Research Network (AARNet) established with $800,000 from Australian Research Council and funds from participating Australian universities, goes live May 1990

     1990

Elz delegates some responsibility to Australian National University's Geoff Huston ('edu' 2LD and 'gov' 2LD). Responsibility for 'net' 2LD later delegated to Hugh Irvine of ISP connect.com.au and asn' 2LD to Michael Malone of ISP iinet.

     1993

Asia-Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC) established

IANA established in US

proposals for Australian Internet Registry (AIR) as non-profit company to operate dot-au registry

mid-1990s Australian Vice-Chancellors Committee (AVCC) transfers commercial aspects of AARNet to Telstra

     1994

launch of OzEmail and connect.com.au

     1995

Cybernet in Melbourne is Australia's first cybercafe?

4,000 registrations in dot-au?

     1996

Elz delegates responsibility for 'com' 2LD to a commercial unit of Melbourne University (Melbourne IT), floated in 1999

ISOC-AU established as local chapter of the Internet Society

     1997

Australian Domain Name Administration (ADNA) established

Telecommunications Act 1997

responsibility for 'gov' 2LD moves from Huston to Office of Government Online - later absorbed by National Office for the Information Economy (NOIE)

     1998

dot-AU Working Group established under Commonwealth auspices but gets bogged down

NOIE agrees to facilitate creation of a new Australian internet self-regulatory regime, with transfer of authority from Robert Elz to new entity

82,000 registrations in dot-au

     1999

establishment of auDA

     2000

letter from NOIE CEO to ICANN on Principles for the Delegation & Administration of Country Code Top Level Domains

federal Telecommunications Legislation Amendment Act 2000 underpins auDA's operation

auDA seeks public tenders for management of AUNIC database of dot-au domain names

     2001

seeks public comment on proposals for competition and names policies

issues Interim Code of Practice

seeks tenders for provision of registry services for 'asn', 'com', 'edu', 'gov', 'id', 'net' and 'org' 2LDs

announces that AusRegistry will provide registry services

seeks expressions of interest for new dot-au registrars

six businesses chosen as 'test-bed registrars' (along with the existing registrars for edu.au and gov.au)

seeks public comment on draft Registrar Agreement and draft Registrar Acceditation Application

convenes Code of Practice Working Group during the test-bed period for new registry services

issues draft auDRP dispute resolution policy

257,000 registrations in dot-au

     2002

auDA assumes responsibility for 'id' and 'org' 2LDs

trial of competitive registration begins February

new regime for com.au, net.au, asn.au, org.au and id.au goes live

auDA releases discussion papers about new 2LDs

announces creation of new 'geographic' 2LDs

310,000 registrations in dot-au

     2003

first auDRP rulings

Spam Act 2003

Melbourne IT buys Domainz

350,000 registrations in dot-au

     2004

auDA advisory panels review competition and name policies

Federal Court rules in favour of auDA and ACCC in action against Domain Names Australia

     2005

auDA lifts restrictions on use of geographic names in com.au and net.au

over 560,000 registrations in dot-au

     2006

establishment of .au Community Domains Pty Ltd (auCD)

over 720,000 .au registrations

     2007

1 millionth .au registration

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