.melbourne Domain: A City Ending That Asks for a Victoria Link
.melbourne entered the root zone on 3 July 2014 and is one of the rarer cases in this catalogue: the party to the ICANN agreement is not a commercial company but a state body acting for Victoria, Australia. The registry states the purpose as strengthening Melbourne and the state online. As of 12 August 2026 there are 6,779 registrations, 4,921 of them published.
The zone is used by Victorian businesses, residents of the state, community groups, event organisers, and outside organisations that supply goods or services into Victoria. This sets it apart from city endings that impose no connection test at all; the section below explains what that means in practice. Try names on the .melbourne domain search screen, or look at the .miami page for a city ending with no such test.
The registry's Registration Policy sets three criteria and the registrant must satisfy at least one: (A) an entity registered with ASIC or the Australian Business Register holding an address in Victoria, (B) an Australian citizen or resident with a valid address in the state, or (C) an associated entity that sells into Victoria, runs an event there or provides training to residents. Under the third criterion the name itself must match the applicant's name, product, service or event. The policy also requires the registrant to be the intended beneficiary of the registration and forbids using any third party or service to conceal who that is. The test applies at registration and at every renewal.
.MELBOURNE Domain at a Glance
- Registry operator The Crown in right of the State of Victoria (Australia)
- Root zone entry 3 July 2014
- Eligibility A Victoria link is required; one of three criteria must be met
- Zone size 6,779 registrations, 4,921 published (12 August 2026)
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .melbourne domain
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.melbourne Domain Prices — No Surprise Fees
Registration, transfer and renewal fees are listed separately. The renewal price can differ from the first-year price, so you see both up front.
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New Registration
$57.90 /year -
Transfer
$57.98 /year -
Renewal
$63.78 /year -
Restore
$349.90 -
Late Renewal
$12.76
Included With Every .melbourne Domain
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Free DNS management
Change A, MX, TXT and CNAME records yourself from the panel — no waiting on anyone when you move a site or mailbox.
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Domain lock
While the lock is on, nobody can move your domain to another registrar without your approval.
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Domain forwarding
Point the domain at your existing site, a campaign page or a social profile — at no extra cost.
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Free WHOIS privacy
Your name, address and phone stay out of public WHOIS records, which cuts down spam and scam calls.
.melbourne Domain Lifecycle
What happens day by day after it expires
Day 0 is the domain's expiry dateIn short: your .melbourne domain is put on Client Hold on its expiry date, so the site and e-mail stop that same day. You can still renew during the first 20 days, but from this point a late renewal fee is added on top of the renewal price. On day 20 the registration is deleted and until day 50 only a paid restore brings it back. Nothing at all can be done in the 5 days that follow, and on day 55 the name is open to anyone. There is exactly one way never to enter this chain: keep auto-renewal on.
Domain Is Available (Available)
A .melbourne address at this stage has not been taken yet, and it goes to whoever registers first. Check the name you have in mind — if it is free, it can be yours within minutes.
Domain Is Active (Active Period)
Once registration is complete, the domain is registered to you for the term you selected. You can renew at any point before it expires to keep it active, or switch on auto-renewal so you never have to watch the date.
Renewal Window (Client Hold)
On its expiry date your .melbourne domain is put on Client Hold: the site and e-mail go down that day, but the registration is still yours. A single renewal within these first 20 days brings everything back exactly as it was — nothing is lost. The only difference is that a $12.76 late renewal fee is now added to the renewal price; renewing before the expiry date avoids that fee entirely.
Redemption Period (Redemption / RGP)
On day 20 the registration is deleted and the 30-day redemption period that ICANN requires of every gTLD registry begins. The name is not released to anyone during this time; only you can take it back, by paying the restore fee, until day 50. That fee is far higher than a renewal — renewing on time is always the cheaper route.
Pending Delete (Pending Delete)
Once the redemption window closes too, the domain enters its final 5 days and there is no way back. Neither renewal nor restore works here; nobody — your registrar included — can return the name to you. The registry uses this window as the last hold before the name goes back into the pool.
Open to Anyone Again (Released)
On day 55 the name .melbourne returns to the pool and anyone can register it. Sought-after names are often gone within seconds, and there is no guaranteed way to get one back. Yet staying out of this timeline is entirely in your hands: leave auto-renewal on and the expiry date will never catch you off guard.
The timeline above is the schedule Atak Domain applies and publishes. The ICANN chart you will find elsewhere shows a renewal window of up to 45 days after expiry; ICANN's policy on expired registrations (section 2.2.1) lets registrars delete an expired domain at any time, provided they disclose their policy in advance. We apply that window as 20 days and publish it here in plain sight. Full text of the policy: ICANN Expired Registration Recovery Policy
.melbourne Domain Specifications and Registration Rules
Registration conditions, supported features and the registry's own timelines in a single table.
.melbourne Domain Registration
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .melbourne domain
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.melbourne Domain Support
- IDN Support No
- Transfer Support Yes
- Late Renewal Support Yes
Frequently Asked Questions About .melbourne Domains
The questions people actually ask before registering — answered plainly.
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Only if it meets the third criterion. The Registration Policy admits an outside organisation when it sells goods into Victoria, provides a service there, runs an event in the state or trains its residents. Where that applies, the name itself must also match the applicant's name, product, service or event — it cannot be a freely chosen word. For contrast, see the .moscow page.
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No — the policy takes a warranty, not a document. The applicant undertakes that it meets one of the criteria and that it is the intended beneficiary of the registration. If that warranty turns out to be untrue, the registry may cancel, lock, transfer or delete the name at its discretion. The policy also requires updated details within 14 days of any change, so keep a working contact address on file at your registrar.
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In substance the Registration Policy rules it out. The registrant must be the intended beneficiary of the name, and using any third party or service to obscure or conceal who that beneficiary is, is expressly forbidden. The policy adds that a service provider or agent acting for the applicant does not count as the beneficiary. Decide up front whose name the registration will sit in. You can check the listed party through whois search.
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Yes. The Registration Policy recognises both the second level (name.melbourne) and the third level (name.name.melbourne), and applies the same composition rules to every label. Labels may contain only Latin letters, digits and hyphens. What is actually offered varies by registrar, so ask which forms are available before you place an order.
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The registry may suspend, cancel or transfer it. Because eligibility is tested at renewal and not only at first registration, losing your Victorian address or activity also puts the renewal in question. A safer plan is to keep your primary address alongside it rather than resting a permanent corporate identity on this one name. You can test candidates together on the bulk search screen.
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Yes, the extension follows gTLD transfer rules. Obtain the authorisation code, lift the transfer lock and start the request at the gaining registrar. The point specific to this extension is that the receiving party must also satisfy one of the eligibility criteria in its own right, so handing the name to an ineligible party breaches the policy. Begin at the domain transfer page.
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