This inquiry explores sociocultural, pragmatic, and gender differences between native speakers of Australian English (AE) and Bahasa Indonesia (BI) in expressing the speech act of apology. Based on an oral discourse completion task (DCT) employing data from 24 native speakers of both languages, the inquiry centers on the variations in the use of apology strategies in three situations of moderate severity. The findings demonstrate that the two groups employ a variety of strategies in expressing apologies. The majority of BI speakers tend to employ requests for forgiveness with rather strong hearer-oriented strategies. AE apologies, on the other hand, seem to be dominated by the frequent use of expressions of regret, with speaker-oriented strategies. Another noticeable speech phenomenon lies in the differences in demonstrating directness and politeness: BI speakers are likely to be more elaborate and less straightforward in their expressions than AE speakers. It is also evident that Indonesian apologetic acts tend to be somewhat formulaic and less varied compared with those in Australian expressions. Finally, the findings display quite pronounced gender differences both within and between the two languages in terms of the strategy use and expressions.