Ohhh, so Demonoid finally admits this *is* a domainer's forum. No wonder it's not high on the list of priorities of auDA board member candidates.
As for advising existing .uk registrants of the change to second level domains, I've got no idea oh how they alerted existing registrants, but going by PR material they have contacted all registrants. What that communication said I don't know.
And so yes, this is a forum of domainers.
And findtim, naturally I'm a supporter of second level registrations. I have been for over 5 years. Domainers, while a significant part of the registrant community for .au names, are a minority. Hard to believe but true.
Maybe the views of Stephen Fry are more relevant on the issue too, when he said on the switch that "nonetheless it has been a nuisance these twenty years or so" that .uk second level names have not been available.
It's an even bigger nuisance to individuals that have no space to go to to register a domain in .au. And no, .id.au is not an option. It's objective may be sound, but it's unloved with 1.61% of all .au registrations. Who knows, opening up second level .au may even increase demand for .au domains.
As for Rhythm's comments, well, you may be right, you may be wrong. Any changes to .au should not follow any other registry change, rather than learn from what happens in other ccTLDs. .NZ is another undergoing change at the moment for second level registrations.