24 October 2005

Within Cooee

If you are ever trying to call someone in the Australian bush you will need to master the call of "Cooee". This is a high pitched call which carries far through the bush. Some history of it is here. Start low with the "Coo" and the go high with the "ee" aiming for the echo.
My parents are currently visiting and getting to meet all these children that have grown so much since they last saw us almost three years ago. They arrived at the back of our property and all the children were inside doing schoolwork. So my dad called "Cooee" to get the children's attention.
A common use of the term is when something is a long way off, it isn't "within cooee". I sometimes use it when reconciling account balances and describe unbalanced items as "not within cooee".
So now you know.

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