From inside a roaring single-prop plane, I watch the rugged Kimberley region of north-western Australia unfold. Dun-coloured and etched with tree-lined gullies, escarpments, gulfs, serpentine tidal rivers, sprinklings of eucalyptus, grassland, mud and salt-flats, it is more than one-and-a-half times the size of the UK, yet has a population of only 30,000. Then a sprawling, flat-topped mountain looms into sight, looking like a giant jigsaw piece.
This - along with Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman - is one of the stars of the much-hyped Australia, the blockbuster directed by Baz Luhrmann that opens in the UK on Boxing Day. Brooding, omnipresent, Mount Cockburn could well become the next big Aussie natural icon particularly as, unlike the area around Uluru (Ayers Rock), virtually all of Kimberley is unadulterated, offering drama, an authentic taste of the wild and varied, albeit far-flung, accommodation. The best way to experience it? On horseback of course, like Kidman and Jackman.
Luhrmann's film, set at the outbreak of the Second World War, tells the tale of an English aristocrat (Kidman) who inherits a cattle station. After arriving by flying boat in Darwin, she sets off on horseback across the Top End of the continent to claim it. Mid-gallop, she falls in love with a handsome local stockman (Jackman). Scenes of the devastating Japanese bombing of Darwin contrast with Aboriginal life and steamy romance at the remote homestead, building up a lyrical picture of Australian history and the hardships of the Outback.
In fact the filming was beset with the kind of tribulations the Outback specialises in, from the merciless climate (heat, dust, unexpected rains) to mind-boggling distances, complex logistics (including trucking in 1,400 authentic, shorthorn cattle from Queensland) and the need for permission from indigenous owners of the land.
Given her gruelling days, Kidman was naturally after the most comfortable accommodation available; however, the best in the area, the exclusive Homestead at El Questro - rooms start at £770 a night - could not help: all six rooms were taken. She ended up staying in Kununurra, the Kimberley region's prosaic market town.
Take this as a warning: you need to book about a year in advance to experience the cosseting that has made El Questro's reputation (and made it a favourite with Kylie Minogue and Kidman, on previous occasions). However, there are plenty more affordable options in the 5,000 sq km El Questro Wilderness Park, from tent-shaped cabins by the lush Emma Gorge to family bungalows and a campsite at the 'township', the hub of the property.
The 60 cabins put you very close to your neighbours, but the gorge brings nature straight to your veranda. Raucous birdlife kicks in at dawn, with screeching corellas, rainbow bee-eaters, screaming bowerbirds and honeyeaters, while a boulder-clambering gorge hike to a waterhole reveals endless native plants - pandanus, melaleuca, grevillea, wattle. You may spot an ungainly goanna lizard or a wallaroo (like a big wallaby and, bizarrely, called a euro in some parts of Australia). In the magical Chamberlain Gorge, rock wallabies hop from ledge to ledge. In contrast, half an hour's drive from Emma Gorge at the chic Homestead, nature comes under control: all is sweetness, light, haute cuisine, manicured lawns and views to die for. Nicole, eat your heart out.
In 21st-century Kimberley, four-wheel-drives are inevitably the rule, so early one morning I bounce along El Questro's dirt road past the thermal springs - but only as far as the stables. Yawning in the cool morning, six of us and our mounts set off on an irregular route along stony tracks through bush to savannah and, finally, onto an open plain, perfect for a canter beneath yet another scenic ridge.
We splash through a river, then push through undergrowth, tripping down a gully, admiring old cattle-mustering gear (the 7,000 cattle on this station are far to the north, well away from visitors, so there is little chance of me having a go), spotting birds or simply riding in silence, watching that inimitable clear light intensify. Three hours pass in a flash and we're back at the stables, where a braying adopted donkey, who has faithfully followed our trail, throws herself at her mate. I throw myself at a coffee at the nearby campsite.
Wherever you are, you never lose sight of majestic Mount Cockburn. Formed from the same red ochre sandstone as Uluru, it's the grand-daddy at 1.8 billion years old (Uluru is a mere 100 million), and the serrated cliffs take on equally mesmerising hues at dawn and dusk, as if irradiated by the sun. The circumference clocks up about 120km, not easy driving, in particular along my next chosen route, the Karunjie Track, which is unsurfaced, bumpy and entails fording crocodile-infested rivers.
During the 'wet' (our winter), it's impassable, during the 'dry' (April to October), it's rough but idyllic, with scenery punctuated by massive, sculptural boabs (Aussie baobabs), black beefwood trees and blinding white ghost-gums shading hundreds of humpbacked Brahman cattle. We even pass a lagoon filled with egrets before rounding the northern end of the range to the bleak, salt- and mud-flats that are the site of the dramatic cattle-mustering scenes of the film.
Three bone-shaking hours later, I arrive at my second cattle station, Digger's Rest. For several weeks of filming, this was base camp for some 300 film crew - who slept in tents while Kidman and Jackman had air-conditioned campervans. 'Faraway Downs', the fictional homestead, was recreated at Carlton Hill Station close by. Digger's Rest may lack cinematographic style but, I soon discover, wins hands down for eccentricity and friendliness.
The 1920s stone homestead stands at the centre of a ramshackle cluster of outbuildings and garden, a crossroads for a motley assortment of people and animals. I pass a pen of bleating kid goats (some of the 450 goats, 50 horses and 100 cattle), then a couple of dogs, before suddenly crossing paths with an emu. Shaggy and moth-eaten, she stalks past me towards the distant bush huts. Roderick Woodland, owner of Digger's Rest and a third-generation Kimberley-dweller, warns me that she occasionally trashes a guest's wash-bag. Later, I arrange two chairs in the doorway of my hut; my toothpaste is precious out here.
It is hard to put your finger on what makes Digger's Rest so special. The sofas around the homestead verandah have seen better days and you have to rustle round the kitchen to find breakfast, though the billy is already on the boil over the coals and Slim Dusty croons 'A pub with no beer' on an old hi-fi. During the heat of the afternoon, my simple hut (hessian curtain for door, clothes-pegs on a line for a wardrobe, solar-powered electricity, open-air shower), one of six, gets impossibly hot as the insect-screen walls lap up the sunlight. But it's more sociable anyway on the shady verandahs, where more familiarised people chat, doze or read. You don't know who is guest, friend or employee, and it doesn't matter. Jackman apparently fitted in perfectly, occasionally standing drinks all round.
Later, a solid dinner of vegetables and a side of beef from the station, roasted in an antiquated bush oven by Roderick, is eaten round a campfire to tales of Aussie adventure, stimulated by generous quantities of beer or wine. Slowly people drift away and I'm back in my little hut to enjoy the cool night air.
From my bed I see myriad stars and the broad white brushstroke of the Milky Way, hear the wind and the grunts of the animals shuffling around nearby. At dawn (no alarm necessary - the goats do the trick), I'm out on my porch to watch the early light morph from faint blushes into a burning glow on Mount Cockburn, directly opposite.
On horseback, I feel like a queen, if not quite Nicole Kidman (but it was her double who did most of the riding anyway). As a group of us amble along the King River late one afternoon, Rachel, our leader, points at the banks below: sure enough, a croc is lazily sunning itself. Cattle graze or rest under trees.
We stop to admire a particularly spectacular boab, the site of Kidman and Jackman's first on-screen tryst, then trot on from the beautiful, lush river bank to canter across open grassland. Eventually, at the top of a gentle mound surveying this vast, immensely powerful landscape, we join Roderick's wife, Alida, who's waiting with bottles of bubbly. Toasting the golden light, I yet again pay homage to that bewitching, ever-present mountain, this time glowing vivid purple.
Essentials
Luxury Homestead double rooms at El Questro (00 61 8 9169 1777; voyages.com.au) cost from £770 a night; tented cabins sleeping four from £128 a night. Horse-riding from £40 for two hours. Digger's Rest Station (00 61 8 9161 1029; diggersreststation.com.au) offers double 'bush huts' from £50 a night; bunk rooms from £55 a night; camping from £5 per person.
Kununurra is the main Kimberley airport, with daily flights from Darwin from £120 return (airnorth.com.au). Qantas (08457 747767; qantas.com) flies daily from Heathrow to Darwin via Singapore from £982 . Qantas Holidays (020 8222 9124) can tailormake packages with accommodation at El Questro.
• For more information see australia.com
