.au Domain Administration (auDA) today announced its board had decided to create eight new second level domains. These will be act.au, nsw.au, nt.au, qld.au, sa.au, tas.au, vic.au, wa.au.
Last month it was reported that auDA's New Names Advisory Panel had recommended that new second-level domains (2LDs) be released for states and territories, so that there was a place for communities to have Web sites.
Chris Disspain, CEO at auDA, said the proposed domain structure would be placename.state/territory.au. Use of the new 2LDs would be restricted to community Web site portals reflecting community interests, such as historical information, interest groups and tourism.
"The creation of the new 2LDs represents a major change to the Australian DNS and there are many operational and policy issues that need to be worked through," Disspain said. "We anticipate a 12-18 month implementation period."
