Sutton Forrest is a sleepy place, you've just had the 10 cents tour. The church, the pub and Bunya Hill.
Nicole Kidman is set to become the cattle queen of the Southern Highlands. Life will almost imitate art for the 41-year-old actress and her country music star husband, Keith Urban, who secretly have snapped up Bunya Hill, a 45-hectare cattle stud at Sutton Forest, for about $6.5 million.
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, for they remained in the United States ahead of 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 local 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 returned to being 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 the latest issue of American Vogue - featuring Kidman on the cover, shot by Annie Leibowitz - the actress explains 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 recorded an interview with Entertainment Tonight and 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.
Bunya Hill was listed for sale by Peter Coad, head of global markets at National Australia Bank, and his wife, Helen, through Sothebys and Drew Lindsay Real Estate. In 2002 the Coads bought the unrenovated property for $2,725,000 from Carl and Joan Roach, who inherited it from the Wallaces. The two-storey residence was built in 1878 by a merchant, Anton Tange, who bought the land from a stock and station agent, Henry Septimus Badgery. In 1908 Tange's executors sold the property for £2100.
Gregory Ropert is among Sutton Forest residents fighting a proposed convention centre and 90-unit motel, which might double the area's population. He said it would detract from the area's sleepy character and Urban and Kidman are welcome so long as they don't do the same.
"There are a whole lot of people of note down this way that come and go and they bring their whole entourages with them," he said.
"They don't have much of an impact - it's a quiet, insular area and I doubt that people around here would really care that they're here. That's probably what they were looking for when they decided [to move here]."
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, for they remained in the United States ahead of 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 local 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 returned to being 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 the latest issue of American Vogue - featuring Kidman on the cover, shot by Annie Leibowitz - the actress explains 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 recorded an interview with Entertainment Tonight and 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.
Bunya Hill was listed for sale by Peter Coad, head of global markets at National Australia Bank, and his wife, Helen, through Sothebys and Drew Lindsay Real Estate. In 2002 the Coads bought the unrenovated property for $2,725,000 from Carl and Joan Roach, who inherited it from the Wallaces. The two-storey residence was built in 1878 by a merchant, Anton Tange, who bought the land from a stock and station agent, Henry Septimus Badgery. In 1908 Tange's executors sold the property for £2100.
Gregory Ropert is among Sutton Forest residents fighting a proposed convention centre and 90-unit motel, which might double the area's population. He said it would detract from the area's sleepy character and Urban and Kidman are welcome so long as they don't do the same.
"There are a whole lot of people of note down this way that come and go and they bring their whole entourages with them," he said.
"They don't have much of an impact - it's a quiet, insular area and I doubt that people around here would really care that they're here. That's probably what they were looking for when they decided [to move here]."
I was just saying that Kidman is a gypsy, oh well.
I have actually been to Bunya Hill, it was in the early 90's at a fundraiser. It was very run down and drafty then, but I understand it's had an amazing renovation. Still the place would cost a fortune to heat, and as I doubt the Kidman/Urban family will ever spend more than a few weeks a year there, it seems an extraordinary expense.
The residents will hate Keith's bikes. Don't know why they even mention the equestrian centre, which is of an international standard I might add, because apart from filming Australia, Kidman doesn't ride. Does Urban? LOL
The Southern Highlands are quite beautiful, I spent many happy holidays there as a child with my family. We used to stay at Treetops in Bundanoon. Really top schools in the area, very rural, ripping Polo tournaments and only a few hours drive to Sydney. Good move in terms of being invisible to paps, and an airport close by for quick getaways.
Kidman can do her usual and say that she was there all the time, when she wasn't and no one will ever know.
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