Hi Mel These are purely my thoughts on the matter ( i haven't yet finally commited to open an Oz A/C but I am strongly looking into it or alternatively buying stock in AUD $ on the Oz exchange).There is more on the web about all of this - as another poster often says here, Google is your friend! AUD is an asset backed currency, given Oz's enormous mining resources, so the economic outlook long-term is bright. Oz managed it's economy( and it's banks) well, and didn't nose-dive in the economic crisis. Unemployment is low, prospects are good. Despite the awful floods. The € has serious structural problems in it's governance (diverse economic polices/propects/economies) across member states. Not to mention serious debt problems. All of this is worrying or bodes ill for the currency. A one size fits all interest rate across the € zone has proven troublesome. Interest rates suitable to booming economies are not suitable to depressed economies for example. Ireland during the boom yrs would have benefitted from a higher rate of interest to cool down the economy. And likewise, because we are in a single currency we haven't been able to devalue and boost exports using this method ( as Iceland has been able to do). Currency unions in the past have also failed, so history also gives a warning about the future of the €. These problems aren't insurmountable, but they would require a deeper political union and harmonization between member states, and that might prove unpalatable to many. As one EU Minister commented we know what we need to do to save the currency, but we don't know how to get re-elected after doing it! On the plus side, the potential turmoil caused by the break-up of the € would be such an awful prospect (for everyone including strong economies like Germany) that it's probable that some solution will be found. I was reading recently that the founders of the Euro (France/Germany President/Chancellor) had anticipated these problems and had felt that the crisis would "drive/force" closer union between member states which after all, is the goal of the founding treaty. Namely ever closer political and economic union. In the short term there is talk ( but it is just talk as of now)of a two-tier Euro (strong and weak) which would allow "weaker" members like Ireland to effectively devalue. Nobody knows what this would mean entirely, but it might mean that overnight Irish/Greek/Spanish €'s would be worth less (probably a worst case scenario). Clearly there is huge amounts of uncertainty, and this is the primary driver of people seeking to at least look at other currencies like the AUD $. Another factor is the fact that the US $ ( the world's No 1 reserve currency ) faces challenges, as does sterling £. Both of these currencies have been involved in what's known as "quantative easing", in other words, printing more money to increase the money supply. A potential and in my view likely effect of this policy is inflation and devaluation - the more US $ or £'s in circulation the less they are worth. The ECB has declined to do this so far, but it is a potential option. This is not an exhaustive account of the reasons for looking at the AUD $, but it should give you an idea of the thinking behind it. In short, Oz has a lot of resources that the world needs,it's well-managed and this makes it a potentially attractive currency to hold. Hope this helps.