When Girl Scouts at Hilldale Upper Elementary School joined hands to sing “Make new Friends” Tuesday afternoon, they had just made four new friends with visitors from Australia.

Rohan and Julie Hayes, plus their daughters Annabelle and Elizabeth, visited Girl Scout Troop 519 during a week-long stay with Muskogee friends Cristin and Bill Shelby. The Hayes live in a suburb of Sydney, Australia, where their daughters are members of a Girl Guide troop. Girl Guides and Girl Scouts are members of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, an international organization dedicated to helping girls and young women.

Julie Hayes, a former Girl Guide troop leader, said she wanted her daughters to visit a Girl Scout troop during their visit to the United States.

“We want them to appreciate that the world is a very large place, but we’re all the same,” she said.

Hayes and her daughters wore Girl Guide shirts and sashes at the Hilldale visit, which included songs, snacks and questions — lots of questions.

“Do you have a lot of kangaroos there?” one girl asked.

Rohan Hayes answered “not in the city, but you see them in the country.”

Hayes said his country is divided up into seven states that are larger than those in the United States.

“Most people live right around the rim (coast) of Australia, but not in the middle, where it is hot like a desert,” he said.

Cristin Shelby, who is hosting the Hayes family, said she and her husband made friends with the Hayes while on a Rotary Fellowship exchange program. She said they spent 13 months in Sydney with Rohan Hayes’ parents in 2006.

“We got to know the family really well,” said Shelby, who lives on a farm near Webbers Falls.

Annabelle, 13, and Elizabeth, 9, said they were impressed with the farmland.

“There are so many farm animals,” Elizabeth said. “We have animals as pets.”

Elizabeth said she also found it interesting to see a Charlie’s Chicken restaurant.

“We don’t have so many fast food places,” Annabelle explained.

The girls also learned things American Girl Scouts do, such as trading trinkets, called “SWAPs,” which the girls pick up when they go different places or meet other Scouts. The Girl Scouts Web site said SWAPS are Special Whatchamacallits Affectionately Pinned Somewhere. Annabelle and Elizabeth came prepared, however, as they passed out pins in the shell-shape of the Sydney Opera House.

Shelby said the Hayes visited the Cherokee Heritage Center near Tahlequah and the Tulsa State Fair and might go to Oklahoma City.