Australian Company Register (ASIC) - Enriched Company Data

Clean, structured Australian company data from the ASIC Company Register. 2.1 million+ companies with normalised status codes, company type names, name history, ABN numbers, and weekly change tracking.

What this actor does

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) publishes a weekly snapshot of every registered Australian company as a raw government file. This actor:

1. Fetches the latest data from data.gov.au (updated every Tuesday)
2. Normalises all government status codes to plain English (REGD becomes "Registered", DCGD becomes "Deregistered", etc.)
3. Groups multiple rows per company into a single record with name history
4. Formats ACNs and ABNs into standard Australian format (000 000 019, 89 000 000 019)
5. Tracks changes between weekly snapshots (new companies, status changes, name changes, deregistrations)
6. Filters by status, type, state, name, or specific ACNs

Why use this instead of the raw ASIC download?

• The raw file is 379 MB of tab-separated text with cryptic government codes
• Each company has multiple rows (current name + previous names) that need grouping
• Status, type, class, and subclass codes are abbreviations nobody understands
• There is no diff feature - you have to compare snapshots yourself
• The file has no API - you download the whole thing every time

This actor handles all of that and returns clean JSON.

Use cases

• B2B lead generation: Get newly registered companies each week, filtered by state or type
• KYC / due diligence: Look up any company by ACN to get current status, registration date, and name history
• Market research: Filter all active companies by type, state, or name
• Compliance monitoring: Track status changes (companies entering liquidation, external administration, or deregistration)
• Brand monitoring: Search for companies with names matching your client's brands
• Data enrichment: Use the ABN field to join with ABN Lookup data (trading names, GST status)

Modes

Filter mode (default)

Returns companies matching your criteria. Supports filtering by:

• Status (Registered, Deregistered, In Liquidation, External Administration, etc.)
• Type (Proprietary, Public, Foreign)
• State (NSW, VIC, QLD, WA, SA, TAS, ACT, NT)
• Modified since last ASIC update
• Company name (case-insensitive search)
• Specific ACN list (bulk lookup)

Maximum results: Defaults to 1000 to keep runs fast and affordable. Set to 0 for no limit (returns all matching companies, but will take longer and cost more). Set to a higher number (e.g. 10000) for larger queries.

Diff mode

Returns only what changed since the last diff run:

• New companies registered this week
• Companies whose status changed (e.g. Registered to Deregistered)
• Companies that changed their name
• Companies newly deregistered
• Companies removed from the register

The first diff run will return "no previous snapshot available". Run it again the following week to see actual changes. Snapshots are stored in Apify's key-value store and persist between runs.

Full mode

Returns all companies matching your filters (or all 2.1 million if no filters set). Set Maximum results to 0 for no limit. Warning: this is a large dataset and will take several minutes and cost more.

Example output

{
  "acn": "000000019",
  "acn_formatted": "000 000 019",
  "abn": "89000000019",
  "abn_formatted": "89 000 000 019",
  "status_code": "REGD",
  "status": "Registered",
  "type_code": "APTY",
  "type": "Australian Proprietary Company",
  "class": "Limited by Shares",
  "subclass": "Proprietary",
  "date_of_registration": "1990-01-08",
  "date_of_deregistration": "",
  "previous_state": "New South Wales",
  "state_registration_number": "46869041",
  "modified_since_last_report": false,
  "current_company_name": "MONAKA PTY LTD",
  "previous_names": [
    {
      "name": "LOVINI HOLDINGS PTY LTD",
      "name_start_date": "2016-01-28"
    }
  ]
}

Fields

Field	Type	Description
acn	string	Australian Company Number (9 digits)
acn_formatted	string	ACN formatted as XXX XXX XXX
abn	string	Australian Business Number (11 digits, where available)
abn_formatted	string	ABN formatted as XX XXX XXX XXX
status_code	string	Raw ASIC status code (REGD, DCGD, LIQD, etc.)
status	string	Status in plain English (Registered, Deregistered, In Liquidation, etc.)
type_code	string	Raw ASIC type code (APTY, APUB, FNOS, etc.)
type	string	Type in plain English (Australian Proprietary Company, Australian Public Company, etc.)
class	string	Company class (Limited by Shares, Limited by Guarantee, etc.)
subclass	string	Subclass (Proprietary, Public, etc.)
date_of_registration	string	Registration date (ISO format: YYYY-MM-DD)
date_of_deregistration	string	Deregistration date if applicable (ISO format)
previous_state	string	State of registration (full name, e.g. "New South Wales")
state_registration_number	string	State registration number
modified_since_last_report	boolean	True if ASIC flagged this company as modified since last weekly update
current_company_name	string	Current registered company name
previous_names	array	Previous company names with start dates

Status codes

Code	Meaning
REGD	Registered (active)
DCGD / DRGD	Deregistered
LIQD	In Liquidation
EXAD	External Administration
SOSD	Struck Off (Suspended)
CANCN	Cancelled
RECD	Receiver Appointed

Data source and licence

• Source: ASIC Company Register via data.gov.au
• URL: https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/asic-companies
• Licence: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia (CC BY 3.0 AU)
• Update frequency: Weekly (every Tuesday)
• Dataset size: 2.1 million+ companies, 379 MB

This data is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia, which permits commercial use and redistribution with attribution. Attribution to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) is included in every record.

Limitations

• This is a weekly snapshot, not real-time data. For up-to-the-minute company information, use ASIC Connect (https://connectonline.asic.gov.au/)
• Director and shareholder information is NOT included (not available in the free ASIC dataset)
• The ABN field is populated where ASIC has matched the company to an ABN. Not all companies have an ABN on file.
• Default result limit is 1000 companies to keep runs fast and affordable. Set Maximum results to 0 for all results, or to a specific number for larger queries.
• Diff mode requires two runs (one to establish the snapshot, one to compute the diff). Snapshots are stored in Apify's key-value store.