We plan to travel in Australia for 6-9mths in 2012,which bank to open a savings account?

The four big banks, ANZ, NAB, Westpac and the Commonwealth, have branches all over the place and ATMs in most towns but the Commonwealth has more outlets as you can make withdrawals and deposits from your Commonwealth account at Post Offices - and every town has a Post Office. If you are travelling, the Commonwealth is the bank for you.

It may be better to keep you US bank accounts and if possible get your US employer to direct deposit into your US account and attach this account to a US based paypal.com account and when you are in Australia open an Australian Bank account and open an Australian paypal.com.au. and link your Australian account to that. And transfer you paychecks by paypal (reduced fees) using a different email address :).

Any of the big 4 bank in Australia (Commonwealth, Westpac, ANZ or National ) you can open an account.

I would normally suggest a credit union,but in this case I will say the Commonwealth bank,as it is in every state & also has agencies in some Post Offices in towns where there isn't a branch.