Posted by Fred on February 20, 2001 at 23:46:19 from 203.132.225.3:
In Reply to: Coooee! posted by Dave W on February 18, 2001 at 13:05:21:
As an Aussie living in bushland on the (then) outskirts of Sydney in the mid to late 1940’s, I remember the cooee call being used quite frequently. Our version was a high-pitched. long drawn-out first syllable (lasting two or three seconds) with the second syllable snapped off sharply (as used in the film Crocodile Dundee).
The Australian Macquarie Dictionary gives this definition -
cooee
n., v., cooeed, cooeeing
-n.
1. a prolonged clear call, the second syllable of which rises rapidly in pitch, used most frequently in the bush as a signal to attract attention.
2.. within cooee, within calling distance.
3. not within cooee, far from achieving a given goal.
-v.i.
4. to utter the call “cooee”, also cooey.
[ Aborig.; Dharuk guwi come here.]
The call was adopted quite early by white explorers and settlers in the bush, but seems to be less in use than formerly, although the expression “not within cooee” is occasionally used to describe such events as a pathetic putt in golf or a miserable attempt to catch a ball in cricket (He didn’t get within cooee of it.).