Yeah I've been thru this recently. What I found was:(i) A number...

Yeah I've been thru this recently. What I found was:

(i) A number of banks (Westpac, CBA, Anz, Nab, HSBC and
probably many others) have a foreign currency accounts or
foreign currency term deposit accounts. Whereby the balance is held in whatever currency you wish, in your case USD. The issues as far as I can tell are that:

1) the bank exchange rates aren't very good
2) there's minimum account balances required
3) fees that eat into the balance!

But maybe there's something that suits you.

I also read that Ozforex.com.au apparently offer better
conversion rates and can transfer money in between accounts.

(ii) The banks also offer foreign exchange options/swaps but I noticed that the miniumum amount is quite high at $25,000AUD for some banks so this may be unsuitable for you.

(iii) The ASX has the USD ETF which is essentially buying
USD. I wish the liquidity was a little better on this ETF.

(iv) There's also traveller's cheques, travel money cards holding USD and of course physical foreign cash. (But the risk with these is that they will get stolen or lost)

I'm a little frustrated by the fact I can't quite find the account I want. I'm thinking HSBC has a foreign currency savings account with a minimum ongoing balance of $1,000AUD and no monthly account fee. The only slight issue is that HSBC is a UK based bank.