To keep your address private in Australia, deal with each public register that can publish it. Apply to the Australian Electoral Commission for silent elector status if your safety is at risk, keep your home off ASIC's business names register by using a PO Box or your accountant's address for service, and ask ASIC to suppress your residential address if you are a company officeholder. Do the electoral roll first, because ASIC's suppression process expects anyone enrolled to vote to be a silent elector already.
Register by register: what is public and how to restrict it
Each register runs its own rules and its own privacy process, and approval on one does not carry across to the others. This table is the map; the sections below explain the steps.
| Register | What the public can see | How to restrict it | Official page |
|---|---|---|---|
| Commonwealth electoral roll | Names and residential addresses, viewable on public access terminals in AEC offices; the roll itself is not sold | Silent elector status keeps your address off future editions of the public roll | AEC: managing the roll |
| Victorian council ratepayer rolls | Councils can add non-resident ratepayers and their addresses to local government rolls | A separate application to the council to become a municipal silent voter | AEC: silent electors |
| ASIC business names register | The holder's name, a service of documents address that is always public, and a principal place of business shown as suburb, state and postcode for an individual working from home | Never use your home as the service address; ask ASIC to suppress other details on safety grounds | ASIC: personal information on registers |
| ASIC companies register | Officeholders' names and dates of birth in website extracts; residential addresses were removed from those extracts on 2 February 2026 but can still appear in documents the public can buy | Residential address suppression, with an alternative address published instead | ASIC: hide a residential address |
| ABN Lookup | The entity name, which for a sole trader is your legal name, plus business names and the state and postcode of the main business location | A non-disclosure request to the Australian Business Register on safety grounds | ABR: non-disclosure of ABN details |
| .au domain WHOIS | The registrant's legal name and a contact name, plus a contact email in the web lookup; never a street address or phone number | Role-based contact names and inboxes, chosen when you register or changed through your registrar | auDA: WHOIS policy |
| Trade marks register | The owner's name and address among the registration particulars, plus an address for service in Australia or New Zealand | Settle which address will be published, and whether a company should own the mark, before you file | IP Australia: particulars of registration |
Start with silent elector status
You can apply if you believe having your address on the publicly available roll could put you or your family at risk, and the AEC's silent electors page sets the basic eligibility as being an Australian citizen aged 18 or over who has lived at the address for at least one month, with 16 and 17 year olds able to apply in advance. The page is blunt about what is not enough on its own: your profession, having a silent phone number, or not wanting junk mail. A creator therefore needs to describe the actual risk, such as threats received, a past dox, or someone who has tried to find out where you live.
That explanation goes in a Commonwealth statutory declaration, made under the federal Statutory Declarations Act and witnessed by an authorised person; the AEC says it cannot accept state or territory declarations. You also need one form of identification. Two details catch people out. First, if you are granted silent status for the address you are already enrolled at, your address stays on rolls that are already in the public domain and is masked only on future editions, which can take up to 7 days according to the same AEC page. Second, anyone else enrolled at the address with your surname can still link the address to your family name, so the AEC strongly recommends they apply too, and they can rely on your silent status when they do.
Silent status follows you when you move, as long as you update your enrolment. The AEC suggests registering as a general postal voter so ballot papers are sent to you automatically. Keep the approval letter safe, because it does more work than the roll: ASIC asks for it when you apply to suppress a company address, and the ABR lists it among the evidence it accepts for ABN non-disclosure.
Company officeholders: ASIC suppression after the 2026 change
Creators who trade through a company appear on the companies register as officeholders. ASIC's page on how to hide a residential address on the companies register says it removed residential addresses from current and historical company extracts on its website on 2 February 2026, but adds that this was not meant to remove access entirely and that addresses may still appear in other documents the public can buy and download. Names and dates of birth stay visible, and ASIC does not hide them.
Suppression goes further, hiding the address in current and historically lodged documents, and it is available if you believe your or your family's safety is at risk. You must give ASIC an alternative address to publish instead, and ASIC says it must be a physical address in Australia where documents can be served on you, so a PO Box will not do here even though it is fine for the business names register. The forms depend on your enrolment, as the same ASIC page explains: if you are on the electoral roll, you need silent elector registration and Form 379 with a copy of the AEC approval letter; if you are not, you lodge Form 378 and Form 379 with a statutory declaration explaining the risk and pay a fee.
Two habits keep the suppression working. Send the suppression forms together with a new company registration or director appointment, which ASIC says reduces the risk of your address being published before the request is processed. Afterwards, always write the alternative address and your approval number on any ASIC form that asks for your residential address, because ASIC warns that a residential address entered on a form may appear on the public register.
Business names and ABN Lookup
For a stage or brand name, the business names register is where home addresses most often leak. ASIC's page on personal information on its registers says the service of documents address is always public and suggests a PO Box or your accountant's address instead of your home. ASIC also makes clear that suppressing a residential address on the companies register does not hide anything on the business names register, which has its own request. ABN Lookup is a separate record again, and the ABR runs its own non-disclosure process with its own evidence test.
The two agencies frame occupation differently, which matters when you write your declarations. The AEC says profession alone is not a reason for silent status, while the ABR's non-disclosure page gives “the industry you are in” as an example of a reason to explain in a statutory declaration, alongside court orders, police reports, an AEC silent elector letter and a phone bill showing a silent number. Writing about the specific risks you face, rather than relying on your line of work, suits both tests.
Whether you need a business name at all, and how each of those privacy requests works, is covered in our guide to business name registration for creators, including its decision table for sole traders and companies.
.au domains and trade marks
auDA's WHOIS policy says that, to comply with the Privacy Act, a .au registrant's street address and phone numbers are not disclosed. The registrant's legal name is published, though, and so is a registrant contact name, and the web-based lookup also shows a contact email. auDA's guide to using the .au WHOIS tool suggests role-based contacts, such as a job title and a generic inbox. A June 2026 amendment to the policy also says the Registrant ID field should be left blank when someone registers as a citizen or resident rather than with a business number. So a .au domain will not give away your street, but it can connect a brand to your legal name.
Trade marks are the register creators rarely think about until they file. IP Australia's examiner manual on the particulars of registration lists the applicant's name and address, and an address for service in Australia or New Zealand, among the details entered on the Register, and IP Australia's note on the publication of personal information acknowledges that what it publishes can be misused by third parties. If you plan to protect a stage name, ask your trade marks attorney before filing which address will be published and whether the mark should sit with a company.
Safe-address setup checklist
- If safety is the reason, apply for silent elector status before anything else and store the AEC approval letter where you can find it.
- Rent a PO Box or arrange to use your accountant's address for any service of documents address that will be published.
- Pick a physical alternative address you can be served at, such as an accountant's or lawyer's office, in case you need ASIC company suppression.
- Lodge suppression or non-disclosure requests with the registration itself, rather than waiting until the record is already public.
- Register domains with a role-based contact name and an inbox used only for that purpose.
- Check the sender address on parcels, giveaways and online-shop returns, since those labels land in strangers' hands too.
- Keep your home address out of invoice templates, media kits and contracts unless a client genuinely needs it, and use the business address instead.
- Read the footer of any newsletter you send and check which postal address it shows to every subscriber.
- Update your enrolment and every register within its deadline when you move, so an old safe setup does not quietly lapse.
- Never enter a false address on a government form; the official suppression routes exist so you do not have to.
Registers are only part of the picture. Search results, people-search sites, old accounts and your own photos can expose the same address, and our exposure audit for creators covers those. If your address has already been posted, start with our doxxing response plan, and if someone is following or watching you, our stalking safety plan covers intervention orders.
Limitations of this guide
This is general information about Australian registers as their official pages read on 1 October 2026, not legal advice. Every suppression or non-disclosure request depends on the evidence you give and can be refused, and none of them reaches records held elsewhere, such as land titles, court files or private databases. State and territory rolls and council rolls can have their own processes, so check with your state electoral commission too. If you are in danger, call 000. If the risk comes from a current or former partner or a family member, 1800RESPECT offers counselling and support on 1800 737 732, and a lawyer or community legal centre can advise on intervention orders and your options on each register.