Just from my experience with Canadian banks, that is the cheapest way to go.
In Canada, there's no charge to deposit US checks into a US dollar account. There's a small fee ($1-2) to transfer from US to Cdn. Also the exchange rate isn't that great either.
But overall, it's better than cashing US checks into US accounts. Don't know how it is in Australia, but that's the cheapest way in Canada.
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