From Surgipelago, the Beach Surgery encyclopedia
Places in Beach Surgery
For a chronological list of locations by narrative sequence, see Timeline of places.
For locations within C. W. Smith's wider oeuvre, see Smith's Australian cartography.
Places in Beach Surgery are geographical locations—real, imagined, or hybrid—that appear in the novel, the embedded story Beach Surgery, and its adaptations. The novel and embedded story centre on two primary regions:
Canonical settings
- Newcastle, New South Wales—the city of the first half. Key locations: Bolton Street car park, the apartment, the preschool, underground stone pool, the breakwall, the harbour, the shopping centre.
- New South Wales interior—the rural and desert regions of the second half. Key locations: the service station, the watering hole, the cabin, the mouth of the city.
- Shanbudia—the desert megacity from the frame narrative, where the narrator ran the UN workshop. The dome, the conference centre, Empty World Meditations.
Adaptation-specific locations
Over 200 adaptations have introduced new settings: Kathmandu Valley, Yerevan (the 1994 immersive theatre piece), São Paulo, Lagos, Maranhão, West Shanbudia, and countless others. Each adaptation roots Leif and Katita in specific geographical and cultural contexts—Balinese wayang versions set in the shadow-puppet stage's literal geography; Persian versions in sacred ritual space; Andean weaving adaptations in textile-based cartography.