>   Fred.com.au is already taken but FREDs fish still wants to use the name
>   fred.xxx.au
>   I think this is often a poor solution as both fred.com.au and
fred.xxx.au now
>   get their identity confused in the eyes of the end consumer.

Yes! Just look at bigpond.com and bigpond.com.au. :-)
---
Panther (as in Pinkboard Panther) <panther&#167;pinkboard.com.au>
Larry Singer <larrys&#167;pinkboard.com.au>
Larry Singer <larry&#167;wright.com.au>
http://www.pinkboard.com.au/~panther/
Sending junk email to my addresses will result in rude messages.
"That kind of guy."