Setting up a bank account in Australia

I chose the Commonwealth Bank of Australia as I had banked with them when I lived in Australia. A simple matter of filing out a form online and sending a bank draft was enough to establish the account. Drawing money from it was another matter. In order to draw money from it, which incidentally I could do from North America, I had to self identify. After a few fruitless attempts to complete forms and send copies of passports and driver’s licences to and fro across the Pacific I gave up. Instead when I arrived in the local Commonwealth Bank in the Blue Mountains I was able to self identify by producing my password and as they say in Australia ‘Bob was my uncle’. It was easy. I used that faithful bank debit card almost everywhere for the rest of my trip. The card is called the Commonwealth Bank Maestro KeyCard and it works on the eftpos system internal to Australia and the Cirrus system overseas.