The Traveller's Guide to Australian Currency

Australia is one of the easiest countries in the world to handle money in — a tap of a card or phone covers almost everything, the notes are brightly coloured and hard to mix up, and the rules for visitors are refreshingly simple. Still, a little local knowledge goes a long way. Knowing when you'll actually need cash, how to dodge unnecessary ATM fees, and what the Tourist Refund Scheme can hand back to you at the airport turns money from a worry into an afterthought. Here is the whole picture, start to finish.

Meet the Australian dollar

Australia's currency is the Australian dollar (AUD), written with the familiar dollar sign and divided into 100 cents. You'll see it quoted as A$ or AU$ overseas to set it apart from other dollars. It's a serious player on the world stage: according to the 2025 Bank for International Settlements Triennial Survey, the Australian dollar is the seventh most traded currency globally, accounting for around six per cent of daily foreign-exchange turnover — punching well above the country's population thanks to its mining exports and deep ties across the Asia-Pacific.

The thing first-time visitors notice is the money itself. Every Australian banknote is printed on polymer — a thin, flexible plastic rather than paper. Australia pioneered the technology, issuing the world's first polymer note in 1988, and the notes are now famously durable: you can put one through the wash and it survives. Each denomination is a different colour and a slightly different size, which makes them quick to tell apart and a genuine help for travellers and vision-impaired users alike.

How Australians actually pay

Tap-and-go is the default

Australia is one of the most card-friendly countries on earth. Contactless "tap and go" — touching a card or phone to the terminal — is the everyday norm for everything from a flat white to a tank of fuel. Visa and Mastercard are accepted almost everywhere, and digital wallets like Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay work at the vast majority of terminals. Add your home card to your phone before you fly and you can often get by without ever opening your wallet.

That said, cash hasn't disappeared. The Reserve Bank's 2025 Consumer Payments Survey found that around 15 per cent of payments by number were still made in cash, and roughly half of Australians used cash in a typical week — a figure that has actually stabilised in recent years rather than continuing to fall. The practical takeaway for visitors: lead with cards, but keep a small cash buffer for markets, tips, and the occasional small vendor or remote roadhouse that prefers it.

Getting cash & using ATMs

ATMs are everywhere in cities and towns — at banks, shopping centres, service stations and convenience stores — and most accept international Visa, Mastercard and Maestro cards. The catch is fees. Independent (non-bank) ATMs usually charge an operator fee of a few dollars per withdrawal, on top of whatever your home bank charges for a foreign withdrawal and currency conversion. Two simple habits keep costs down:

• Use bank-branded ATMs (the big four are CBA, Westpac, NAB and ANZ) rather than the standalone machines in pubs and corner shops.
• Withdraw larger amounts less often so you pay the fixed fee fewer times — but only carry what you're comfortable with.
• If the ATM offers to convert to your home currency ("dynamic currency conversion"), decline and choose AUD — your own bank's rate is almost always better.

Exchange & travel money cards

You don't need to arrive with a thick wad of Australian dollars. A small amount exchanged before you fly — enough for a coffee, a train fare or a taxi if cards fail — is sensible, but you'll usually get a sharper rate from an ATM or a city exchange bureau than from an airport kiosk back home. For longer or higher-spend trips, a multi-currency travel card (the well-known options are Wise and Revolut) often gives near-interbank exchange rates and lower fees than a traditional bank card, and lets you lock in AUD in advance. Most experienced travellers run a simple kit: a travel card for day-to-day spending, a credit card as backup, and a modest cash float for emergencies.

GST & the Tourist Refund Scheme

Australia charges a 10 per cent Goods and Services Tax (GST) that's already baked into the displayed price — the figure on the shelf is the figure you pay, with no surprise tax added at the register. The good news for visitors is the Tourist Refund Scheme (TRS), which lets you claim that 10 per cent back on eligible goods you take home. To qualify:

• Spend $300 or more (including GST) at a single business, shown on one tax invoice (you can combine multiple invoices from the same retailer).
• Buy the goods within 60 days of your departure date.
• Carry the items with you as you leave and have the tax invoice and your passport ready.

Claims are made at the TRS counter after passport control at international airports and cruise terminals. The TRS app lets you pre-enter your details to speed things up, but allow plenty of time — queues build before big departures. Note that services such as accommodation, car hire and tours, and anything you've already consumed, aren't eligible.

Tipping in Australia

A genuine extra, never an obligation

This is where Australia differs sharply from the United States. Tipping is not expected, because hospitality and service staff are paid a legally mandated minimum award wage rather than relying on tips to make a living. No one will chase you for a gratuity, and most card terminals don't even prompt for one. Tipping is a sincere thank-you for service that genuinely impressed you — and it's always welcome in that spirit:

• Restaurants: around 10 per cent for excellent service at a nicer venue, entirely at your discretion.
• Cafés: rounding up or dropping coins in the tip jar.
• Taxis & rideshare: rounding up the fare, if you like.
• Hotels: a few dollars for a porter; not expected for housekeeping.
• Tour guides: a tip for a memorable day is appreciated but never required.

Bringing money in & out

There's no limit on how much money you can carry into or out of Australia — but if you're moving physical currency of AUD 10,000 or more (or the equivalent in any foreign currency), you must declare it to the Australian Border Force on the way in and out. The declaration is straightforward and free; it exists to deter money laundering, not to tax you. Cards, account balances and digital wallets don't count and don't need to be declared. Failing to declare when required can lead to the cash being seized and significant penalties, so when in doubt, declare.

The notes & the people on them

Australian banknotes are a quiet roll-call of the nation's history — poets, reformers, inventors and pioneers, one pair to each denomination (the $5 being the exception). Here's who you'll meet.

The coins in your change

Australian coins come in six denominations: 5c, 10c, 20c, 50c, $1 and $2. A quirk worth knowing — the tiny $2 coin is worth more than the much larger $1 coin, and the distinctive twelve-sided 50c piece is the heaviest in your pocket.

The 1c and 2c coins were withdrawn from circulation back in 1992, which is why cash totals are rounded to the nearest five cents at the register (electronic payments are charged to the exact cent). Coins carry the reigning monarch, so newer coins now feature King Charles III; both his and Queen Elizabeth II's coins circulate side by side and are all legal tender.

Built-in security features

Australian polymer notes are among the hardest in the world to counterfeit, with several features you can check yourself in a few seconds:

• A clear top-to-bottom window with dynamic elements — tilt the note and you'll see a reversing number and a small flying bird shift and shimmer.
• A rolling-colour patch on the denomination numeral that changes hue as you move the note.
• Micro-printed text — excerpts of writing linked to the people featured, far too fine to reproduce on a photocopier.
• Tactile bumps along the edges so that vision-impaired users can identify each denomination by touch, a feature Australia helped pioneer.

A short history of Australian money

Australia's money has a colourful past. The early colony had no official coinage at all, and rum became an informal currency until 1813, when Governor Lachlan Macquarie solved a coin shortage by punching the centres out of imported Spanish dollars — creating the ring-shaped "Holey Dollar" and the small "Dump" from a single coin. The colony used British pounds, shillings and pence for over a century.

The modern era arrived on 14 February 1966, when Australia switched to decimal currency — dollars and cents replacing the old pounds-shillings-pence system. (The new unit was very nearly called the "royal" before "dollar" won out.) Then in 1988, to mark the bicentenary, Australia issued the world's first polymer banknote, and by 1996 every paper note had been replaced. The technology has since been adopted by dozens of countries around the world — one of Australia's quieter but more enduring exports.

Payment methods at a glance

Smart money habits by region

Frequently asked questions