Lake Cadibarrawirracanna is a large salt lake located just north of about the middle of the William Creek to Coober Pedy Rd.
The lake is the subject of a song / lullaby named "Carra Barra Wirra Canna" written by Morva Cogan and published by her in 1965. This song was one which Janet heard and loved as a small child when it was regularly part of the ABC children's radio program Let's Sing. Lyrics are included below.
Much more recently Janet has been known to sing it as a lullaby to help MissChloe, MrSimba, and more recently Ruff_Ruff and MrQuinn off to sleep. The song is special to her. She never realised the song was about a real place but once she knew it was we had to visit.
The lake is quite large being 32 kilometres long with a width of around 10 kilometres and an area of 220 square kilometres.
Cadibarrawirracanna, meaning the stars were dancing, is said to be the second longest official place name in Australia. In the local Arabana language it is "Kardipirla warrakanha", where kardipirla is stars, warra- is dance, play, -ka is simple past tense, and -nha is a proper noun marker.
The lake is located within the boundaries of the Anna Creek Station pastoral lease. It has public access established under the Pastoral Land Management and Conservation Act 1989 via the access road (PAR) connecting the lake viewing campsite and the Coober Pedy to William Creek Road about 6.5 kilometres to the south. The intersection with the access road is about 88 kilometres from Coober Pedy to the west and about 77 kilometres from William Creek to the east. We have placed trailhead waypoint T0 to mark the turn off. It is signed. Do not drive beyond the "no vehicles beyond here" sign at the P0 waypoint. However this is a great spot to view the southern arm of the lake and the main lake to the north. It is also permissible to camp here.
This is a remote area so please ensure you are properly prepared. The sand on the PAR can be soft and we recommend a 4WD with lowered tyre pressures plus the usual recovery equipment, plenty of water, and a sat phone and/or ELT. If you travelling as a single vehicle please make sure someone knows where you have gone and when you are due back.
If you do not have a 4WD you could risk driving in if the weather is good and it has been dry, or you could make a 6.5 km hike from the turnoff point. Do not attempt this hike in summer. People have died from exposure out here.
Today we drove out there from Coober Pedy to visit. We were absolutely delighted to find it full of water and birds. It is a beautiful place.
And to celebrate our visit we left a cache there. When hidden it contained a variety of SWAG and a TB.
Lyrics
There's a lake in south Australia, little lake with lovely name
And the story woven round it, from the piccaninnies came
Every night the native mothers croon this lovely lullaby,
Croon across the moonlit waters, to the star up in the sky
Carra Barra Wirra Canna, little star upon the lake
Guide me through the hours of darkness, keep me safely till I wake
Piccaninnies' heads are nodding, drowsy crooning fills the air.
Little eyes at last are closing, And the boat of dreams is there.
Guide my boat across the waters, Cross the waters still and deep,
Light me with your little candle, safely to the land of sleep.
Carra Barra Wirra Canna, little star upon the lake
Guide me through the hours of darkness, keep me safely till I wake