A property scout has been combing the area for months for a perfect retreat for the couple. But Kidman and Urban are yet to visit the property - they remain in the United States after this week's birth of their daughter, Sunday Rose.

In the soon-to-be-released Baz Luhrmann movie, Australia, Kidman stars as Lady Sarah Ashley, an English aristocrat who inherits a remote cattle station, Faraway Downs, in northern Australia. She joins forces with a rugged drover, played by Hugh Jackman, to save her 2000-head herd from barons, and the pair embark on an epic journey to drive the cattle across the top end, where they become caught in the 1942 bombing of Darwin.

The Sutton Forest property, with its magnificent circa 1878 Georgian mansion and impressive pedigree, more than mimics the movie's Faraway Downs. With wide sandstone verandas, pressed-metal ceilings, a carved cedar staircase and 10 marble fireplaces, it has the proportions and details that made it worthy to be leased as a vice-regal rural retreat for Lord Augustus Loftus, a governor of NSW in the colonial 1880s.

Bunya Hill also had a role in World War II. In 1942 it housed 60 English women and their children who had fled Hong Kong before the Japanese invasion. After the war, it was returned to a private residence when acquired by poll hereford cattle breeders William and Florence Wallace.

The homestead on a private hilltop is surrounded by large established gardens that Kidman is sure to oversee. In a recent interview the actress explained how she discovered a green thumb while "nesting" at her Nashville home.

"We have a farm there, and I have an organic vegetable garden," Kidman said. "My mum's always gardened. My sister gardens. And I've now conformed to the Kidman women's hobby of gardening."

Since she was 10 years old, Kidman has been riding horses. While filming Australia she said: "There's something fantastic about leading 1500 head of cattle down a big country road."

Bunya Hill has no stables, but there is an equestrian centre at the edge of Sutton Forest village.