The company controlling the use of online domain names in Australia, au Domain Administration (auDA), is auctioning town, district, suburb and city names.

Geographic names were previously restricted from use as domain names in com.au and net.au.

But auDA has released 20,000 geographic names for use by Australian businesses for commercial purposes.

Registered businesses can apply to register commercial geographical domain names for any location with an Australia Post postcode.

At this week's Moss Vale Chamber of Commerce meeting, members voted to apply to register Moss Vale as a domain name, with three members volunteering to meet the $825 release fee.

While members proposed that the chamber consult first with Southern Highlands Tourism, the chamber felt that immediate action was required.

Chamber president Geoff Hosey said if the chamber's bid was successful, the mossvale.com.au domain name could be linked to the mossvalechamber.org.au already registered.

Applicants for geographic domain names must have a "close or substantial connection" with the name they want. On-selling of geographic names is not allowed.

Where more than one company applies to use the same location name, names will be put in a computer and a winner picked at random.

The ballot is open until July 31 and the first round of ballots will take place in August.

au Domain Administration Ltd is a non-profit company responsible for operating the .au domain for all stakeholders.