Get a taste of the wizz of Oz with Nicole.

COUNTING the tourists has never been a very exhausting business in the vast and little-visited Northern Territory area of Australia - but all that could be about to change in the coming months.

Any new film starring Nicole Kidman has become a bit of an event. But her latest blockbuster Australia, in which the actress plays an aristocrat who goes Down Under to find adventure, romance and her 'true self ', is set to take the delicate art of using a film to lure the tourist hordes to new levels.

The epic film's celebrated producer/director Baz Luhrmann has joined up with Tourism Australia to produce the 'destination campaign' which has already taken 30 and 60-second slots on our TV screens and will run in Australia's 22 major tourist markets around the world until mid-2009.

Set around the start of World War II, the film features many shots of Darwin, the principal town of the massive Northern Territory region.

When I visited Darwin a few months before the film's opening, the locals were still buzzing with the fact that Kidman et al had been in their midst.

Bill Zamitt - tour guide, entertainer and all-round good egg - was as enthusiastic as anyone.

As he whisked me round the area cracking jokes and pointing out landmarks, Bill explained how he, and many other locals, had been roped in to act as extras for the film.

Bill took me around 100 miles south of Darwin to see Adelaide River, where peacocks strutted their stuff in a beautifully-preserved war cemetery memorial gardens.

Adelaide River is also noted for its crocodile-jumping cruise trips.

I watched these positively prehistoric-looking creatures leap from the river to catch bait.

Continuing to entertain with his endless supply of jokes, Bill took me to Litchfield Park where waterfalls provided welcome relief from the 35C temperatures.

On the way we saw what looked like giant earthworks, which turned out to be termite mounds - some of which reached 7ft in height.

We also went to Territory Wildlife Park set in hundreds of acres of natural bush, complete with a birds of prey show, natural springs and an aquarium.

Back in Darwin, Stephen Noble took me on a walking tour of the city.

The 8am alarm-call wasn't exactly welcome, but once the tour began - and the temperature started to rise - I could see the wisdom of an early start.

Stephen walked and talked me through Darwin's two main claims to fame - the bombing by the Japanese and the devastating Cyclone Tracy, which wreaked havoc on Christmas Day 1974.

We visited the city's East Point Military Museum where we saw live footage of the Japanese bombing in 1942 - an event dramatised for the Kidman movie.

The Cyclone Tracy display proved to be particularly poignant, with the whirring sound of the cyclone projected from speakers in a pitch-dark room.

In all, 66 people died in the devastation and around 60% of the city's homes were destroyed.

Walking around with Stephen, I was aware of Darwin's frontier nature.

Many among the 110,000 population came here from other parts of the country, fell in love with the relaxed out-of-the-way, easy-going style of the place, and stayed.

Bill was one of the out-of towners as was Tourism NT (Northern Territory) public relations chief Matt Grooby, a cheerful New Zealander who looked like the powerful rugby player he had once been.

Matt also showed me the sights, including Stokes Hill Wharf which was the main Darwin location for the Kidman film I had flown to Australia courtesy of Singapore Airlines on the very first passenger flight of the world's biggest commercial aircraft - the Airbus A380 superjumbo.

I had been hosted in Sydney by Orient-Express Hotels, who installed me at The Observatory hotel close to the harbour bridge.

From there I was able to see Sydney in lovely spring sunshine. I took the ferry across the harbour for a tour of Taronga Zoo.

This has to be one of the most spectacular zoos in the world, set high above the water with great views back towards the main part of Sydney, including the Opera House.

I was based close to The Rocks - a done-up old area a short walk from Circular Quay from where trains, buses and ferries run.

With the jacarandas in full blossom, I went on a tourist pub tour, running into some enthusiastic travellers from all over the place.

There was also time for a trip to Bondi Beach where I was taken on a Discover Bondi tour while trying not to look - too hard - at the bronzed bodies basking in the sun.

On the way back - purely by chance - I dropped off at Sydney cricket ground and, incredibly, saw New South Wales batsman Simon Katich hit the highest score (306) on the ground since Don Bradman in 1930.

As a small boy I had often laid awake at night listening on the radio to a Test Match from Sydney. Now here I was at the ground witnessing a stellar batting performance.

My Sydney trip was rounded off with a super meal at the restaurant at the top of the city's grand Shangri-La hotel overlooking the harbour.

Perhaps Baz and Nicole are on to something.

Travel Tips

Peter Woodman was a guest of Tourism NT (Northern Territory - www.australiasoutback.com) and Austravel. He flew Sydney-Darwin courtesy of Jetstar Airways.

Qantas Holidays, a leading operator to Australia, offers a seven-day In The Footsteps Of The Movie tour, with nine departures between April 27 and September 23 starting and ending in Darwin, with visits to Katherine Gorge, Bullo River Station, one of Australia's premier hosted Outback properties, a working cattle station, and the Kimberley region, featuring actual movie locations.

The package, including flights, costs pounds 2,465. Supplements include Manchester (pounds 21).

Qantas Holidays reservations: 0208 222 9124 and www.

qantasholidays.co.uk.

Austravel reservations: 0870 166 2070 and www.austravel.com.

Orient-Express Hotels (www.orient-express.com or 020 7960 0500) arranged Peter's stay at The Observatory Hotel, Sydney (www.observatoryhotel.com.au), where a double room B&B starts at pounds 134.

Trips in Sydney were arranged by Tourism New South Wales (www.tourism.nsw.gov.au).

Orient-Express reservations: 0207 960 0500 and www.

orient-express.com.

Peter Woodman flew London-Singapore and Singapore-Sydney on Singapore Airlines' new A380 service which departs twice daily from Heathrow; the standard 747 service goes daily. Fares currently start at pounds 887.80 return.

Singapore Airlines reservations: 0844 800 2380 and www.singaporeair.com.

More destination information is available from Tourism Australia on www.australia.com.

CAPTION(S):

WIDE OPEN SPACES: The fabulous spectacle of the Northern Territory (main picture and far right) - highlighted in director Baz Luhrmann's new epic Australia starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman (near right)