In its perpetual search for stars, TV has found a new mother lode.

Action heroes, it turns out, come from Australia. "I think it is something in the Australian water," joked Christopher Egan. "Or kangaroo meat."

He plays a modern-day David (of Goliath-slaying fame) in NBC's new "Kings." Craig Horner plays a sword-slashing hero in the syndicated "Legend of the Seeker." Travis Fimmel is a tough cop in cable's "The Beast."

Each is in his 20s and is from Australia. That's a good cauldron for action types.

"I had a great childhood," Horner said. "I had everything at my fingertips. There wasn't a day when I wasn't outside doing something."

He grew up in Brisbane, with mountains on one side and the Pacific Ocean an hour on the other. Fimmel grew up on a cattle ranch in Echuca, in the Victoria province.

Egan, by comparison, is a city kid. He grew up in Sydney, went to a performing arts high school, danced and sang in musicals.

Still, Egan says, the outdoor life is always part of Australia. "It is really just a very large island ... You grow up on the beach. And the sun and the weather are incredible ... You get to see it all."

That may be ideal for molding actors and more. "Australia has a disproportionate amount of talented people to the size of its population," Eric Fellner said three years ago, when his Working Title studio opened an Australian branch.

That branch has now closed and the old pattern resumes: Actors develop in Australia, then work in the U.S. Some become big-deal movie stars; Russell Crowe, Mel Gibson, Hugh Jackman all spent their formative years in Australia. Many find TV.

Some of that success may involve the Aussie work ethic. "I love working," Horner said. "I came here to work. My work is my play."

And some may involve a training ground: Young actors get their start in Australian TV series.

Fimmel is the exception. He was discovered while visiting London and became a model, then jumped straight into America TV in "Tarzan." The others, however, started at home.

Egan was just 16 when he landed a role in the "Home and Away" series. Then he studied the American accent with a dialect coach for six months and was ready for the jump -- sort of.

"It doesn't really matter how much coaching you have," he said. "You really have to be living in America" to get the accent right.

He was 19 when he moved to Los Angeles, soon being surprised by the little things ("the coffee isn't that good") and the big picture. "The biggest thing was seeing how many talented people there are in L.A. and how few jobs there really are." He was soon landing some of them, including a guest spot in "Everwood," a regular role in "Vanished" and now "Kings."

Horner hasn't had to make the move. He worked in lots of Australian series, including regular roles in "Monarch Cove," "Blue Water High" and "H2O: Just Add Water." Then American producers were ready to film "Legend of the Seeker" in New Zealand, where they had previously scored with "Hercules" and "Xena."

Most of the key actors are from New Zealand, but the stars are Bridget Regan (from California) and Horner, who had been trying swordplay since childhood. "My older brother was hugely into 'Star Wars,'" he said.

Horner was about 8 when he saw a re-release of the film, but by then he had been swinging light sabres in his back yard for years. There was a long refresher course; before "Seeker: started, Horner and Wilson had six intensive weeks studying swordplay, riding, fighting and more.

All of that is in New Zealand, with the sort of backdrops that have worked for "Hercules" and the "Lord of the Rings" movies. "You don't have to use a lot of green-screen (special effects)," Horner said. "Half the time, that's the real thing in the background."

There, he can fight villains and save the world -- fulfilling his destiny as an Australian actor.