Cooee

Certain Australian words and phrases may be unique to Australia but, mate, there are variations to English wherever English is spoken, so it's best to know a few Australianisms so language doesn't get in the way of something or other.

So let's take cooee.

Cooee is uniquely Australian, a word to call others who may be lost in the bush or, from those people ostensibly lost, to draw attention to where they are.


So searchers shout "cooee" and those being sought shout "cooee" as well.

Cooee is sounded as it is written but drawn out, clear and more shrill than loud to be heard across relatively vaster distances.

Both syllables are stressed with the "coo" pronounced long with a strong "K" sound followed by an aspirated longer "ee" with a rising inflection.

Within cooee

The Australian phrase "within cooee" derives from the "cooee" call but is pronounced with shorter syllables in a conversational manner. It means "near" or "within hailing distance."

Cooee in history

During World War I, with casualties being reported from the front in 1915, a number of men from the New South Wales town of Gilgandra marched 766 kilometres to Sydney, shouting "Cooee!" all the way to encourage others to enlist.

Starting out in Gilgandra with 35 men, the group had grown to 277 by the time it reached Sydney in December 1915.

This event, now known as the Cooee March, is celebrated in Gilgandra in October with a yearly Cooee Festival.

Cooee town

Cooee is also the name of a town just west of Burnie on the northwest coast of Tasmania. Burnie itself is some 50 kilometres west of Devonport.