Your closest experience to the real land down under might be late TV personality Steve Irwin’s crocodile hunting or the animated ’90s sequel to “The Rescuers.”

If this is the case, get ready to break some barriers (cultural, not reefs) with Taste of Cultures: Discover Australia!, an event sponsored by the University of Wisconsin International Student Services Thursday night.

“There’s more to Australia than kangaroos hopping around,” Jaime Borotz, associate director of Collaborative Programming for Global Connections and UW senior said.

The event will feature three Australian students talking about Australian culture, including tourism, higher education, immigration and movies. Also included at the event will be trivia, food, slideshows, musical entertainment, storytelling, prizes, film clips and more.

“I think U.S. students think of the U.K. and Australia as ‘other U.S.es,’ like it’s not a huge culture shock with major differences,” International Student Services Advisor Katie Wirka said. “But big differences exist, so it’s going to be fascinating to see those alongside the similarities.”

Jillian Hocking, an Australian exchange student from Sydney and third year student at UW, said the Wisconsin atmosphere is vastly different from Australia’s, citing UW’s emphasis on its college atmosphere and a sports-central Badger spirit.

Hocking said UW classes are much more formal. “They’ll be shocked at the laidback-ness of Australians,” she said. “When we address professors, we call them by their first names.”

She said they call discussion sections “tutorials,” and that while most first-year students here live in the dorms, many students in Australia live at home – just a few of the linguistic and higher educational differences she will be exploring.

Hocking will also talk about popular tourist attractions, including the mesmerizing Great Barrier Reef.

Throughout Hocking’s presentation and two others given by UW grad students Nalini Prasad and Matt Dwyer on immigration and Australian film, respectively, audience members will be able to both ask questions and answer trivia questions for prizes, including Australian chocolate and other memorabilia from the country/continent.

Free samples of meat pies, Lamingtons (a mini sponge cake coated in chocolate and coconut), Vegemite on toast and Asian vegetarian salad will give attendees a taste of Australian cuisine. “The salad reflects the fact that Australia is multicultural and the cuisine is influenced by other cultures,” Borotz said. “It’s a country that has other influences from the people who’ve immigrated there.”

Finally, the evening will conclude with Wisconsin storyteller Diane Michaels, who will present the origin story of the didgeridoo, followed by a performance on the instrument.

The Taste of Cultures events, which are presented twice a semester, began in 2001.

“We were noticing on campus that international students felt a little timid to talk about where they come from,” Wirka said. “It was more so giving international students a stage to relay what they wanted to about their country, to give an honest picture of where they’re coming from, breaking down stereotypes and barriers.”

Past events have paid tribute to Iran, China, Nepal, Japan and Nigeria, to name a few.

One of the events last semester centered on Japan, which sparked a large fundraising effort for the earthquake and tsunami that occurred in March.

Thursday’s event will be an all-sensory experience transporting attendees to the other side of the world for the evening with brilliant images, tasty treats and riveting stories. And as midterms approach (or maybe after a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day), where else would we rather go but there?

“There are so many beautiful places you can see [in Australia],” Hocking said. “It’s good to inform North American students about discovering Australia – it’s so far away, this might be the closest they can get.”

Taste of Cultures: Discover Australia! will take place Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Red Gym, 716 Langdon St. The event is free, but food is limited to the first 150 attendees. For more info, go to iss.wisc.edu.