Ooh, I didn't know this - I've been using OzForex, transferring a large-ish lump sum every few months. I'll look into this.

I still have a UK credit card (Alliance and Leicester) but the bill goes to my mum's address, so it doesn't matter that we're out here.

I have an ANZ everyday visa debit account, which gets around the fact that the credit limits on the credit cards are rubbish (I got $300 - what is the use of that, eh?!) as it comes straight out of the bank account. Only good if, like me, you hate being in debt and save up before you buy anything (I think this makes me a freak in the eyes of both the banking and retail industries). Although I do pay $6/month, I get totally free banking after that, and I think it's worth the $6 not to be constantly calculating the amount of banking I've been doing - I have better things to do with my life!!

--thribble

Thanks for everyone's help and advice

It's not a problem for me to leave the uk bank acount open and my address the same as any written correspondence will continue to go to my mom's house anyway.
And it's fine for me to leave the balance on the uk credit card and the loan here too with the direct debits coming out of the uk account every month - i do not have the funds to pay them off now so that's not an option.

The only thing i was really concerned about was the easiness and availability of transfering my aus dollars from an account there to my uk account so that the payments for loan and credit card can be taken out each month - if the only option was mailing a cheque home it would've made my life very difficult and not so efficient (reliability of postage, having to get mom to deposit cheque in uk every month!) but it seems from everyone's messages that the option of setting up something where a fixed amount can be transferred to my uk account every month will be perfect for me - i'll be sure to shop around and look for the best bank when i get to sydney!

Thanks again for eveyone's feedback on this!