Second-level .au domain pre-registration for existing third-level .au domain owners (com.au, net.au) opened on March 24, 2022 and will run until Sep 20, 2022. If you order for a second-level .au domain during this phase it will be referred to as a 'pre-order'.
During this phase we'll submit your registration request to the auDA registry and will try to secure your .au domain for you. However, a pre-order does not guarantee the success of a .au domain name registration.