Storm Boy lives on the Coorong. Coordinates are given for Pelican Point. The gallery and video images below show how the Coorong's sand dunes were represented as a wooden stage set resembling ridges of whalebones in the play and sophisticated mechanical puppets were created to play the pelicans. The pelican puppets are full of character and they move in very realistic ways, whereas the set is evocative of the coastal setting rather than representing the Coorong in detail.

Coorong National Park is a large lagoon where the Murray River meets the Southern Ocean. The Coorong wetlands, stretching for 110 km along the South Australian coast, is the traditional homeland of the Ngarrindjeri Aboriginal people. Due to drought conditions in the mid-2000s and overuse of the Murray River water for irrigation, the Coorong region became dangerously dry, the waterways silted up, and the delicate balance of the ecosystem was threatened. By 2009 the region looked little like the wetlands Colin Thiele described in his novel, but in 2010 the drought broke and the Murray River once agian flushed fresh water into the Coorong. Since then, some birds and aquatic species have recovered, but other populations are still severely depleted. Find out more at:

http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/3708186.htm