Australia.NET will act as a national repository, with its data made up from the other state led clusters, said Microsoft Director of developer and platform strategy, Norbert Haehnel. It will record all current and completed projects, .NET specialists and member lists.

"Australia.NET is a consolidation of the matrix of .Net clusters," Haehnel said. "We're aiming to create an uber cluster under which all the other state led clusters can operate and share knowledge."

Other state .NET clusters include, Victoria, Northern Territory, Queensland, Canberra and a soon to be announced Sydney group.

Haehnel said Microsoft was in the final stages of negotiation with the New South Wales State Government for the formation of the Sydney.NET group, a process that has been ongoing for the past 12 months but was "95 percent in the bag".

Haehnel said financial assistance was provided by state governments for each respective cluster to provide venue, catering and marketing costs.