Cooee! (IPA /ku:'i:/) is a shout used in the Australian Outback mainly to attract attention, find missing people, or indicate one's own location. When done correctly - loudly and shrilly - a call of "cooee" can carry over a considerable distance. A tourism sign post Yalgoo, Western Australia The Dingo Fence near Coober Pedy Fitzgerald River National Park in Western Australia Outback refers to remote and arid areas of Australia, although the term colloquially can cover any lands outside of the main urban areas. ...

The call began as an Indigenous Australian custom – a loanword from the Dharuk, the original inhabitants of the Sydney area,^[1] and has now become widely used in Australia. It was known among White settlers there in colonial times and Watkin Tench refers to the Aborigines of Sydney calling to each other in this way. Australian Aborigines are the indigenous peoples of Australia. ... A loanword (or loan word) is a word directly taken into one language from another with little or no translation. ... Darug may refer to: Darug people Darug language Category: ... The Sydney Opera House on Sydney Harbour Sydney (pronounced ) is the most populous city in Australia, with a metropolitan area population of 4,119,190, and 151,920 in the City of Sydney, as of the 2006 census. ... Watkin Tench (1758-1833) was a Marine officer in the First Fleet, establishing the first settlement in Australia in 1788. ...

One of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes mysteries hinges on the use of "cooee!". The Boscombe Valley Mystery is solved partly because, unlike everyone else, Holmes realises that it is an Australian word. This leads to a suspect. Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle, DL (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a Scottish author most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, which are generally considered a major innovation in the field of crime fiction, and the adventures of Professor Challenger. ... A portrait of Sherlock Holmes by Sidney Paget from the Strand Magazine, 1891 Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, who first appeared in publication in 1887. ... The Boscombe Valley Mystery, one of the 56 short Sherlock Holmes stories written by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is the fourth of the twelve stories in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. ...

An expression "within cooee of" has developed. It means "not far from", and seems to be confined to New Zealand and Australian English. Australian English (AuE, en-AU) is the form of the English language used in Australia. ...

The word cooee has become a name of many organisations, places and even events. Perhaps the most historic of these was the Cooee March during the First World War. It was staged by 35 men from Gilgandra, New South Wales, 766 km northwest of Sydney, as a recruiting drive after enthusiasm for the war waned in 1915 with the first casualty lists. The men marched to Sydney calling "Cooee!" to encourage others to come and enlist. When they reached Sydney on 12 December, the group had grown to 277 men. To this day, Gilgandra holds a yearly Cooee Festival in October to commemorate the event. Other Cooee Festivals occur across Australia. The Boomerangs at Forbes During World War I, recruitment marches or snowball marches to Sydney were a feature of recruiting volunteers for the Australian Imperial Force in rural New South Wales, Australia. ... Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ... Gilgandra, a town and Local Government Area (Shire of Gilgandra) in central west New South Wales, Australia, has a few thousand inhabitants and was established some time between 1800 and 1900. ... Capital Sydney Government Constitutional monarchy Governor Professor Marie Bashir Premier Morris Iemma (ALP) Federal representation  - House seats 50  - Senate seats 12 Gross State Product (2004-05)  - Product ($m)  $305,437 (1st)  - Product per capita  $45,153/person (4th) Population (End of March 2006)  - Population  6,817,100 (1st)  - Density  8. ... The Sydney Opera House on Sydney Harbour Sydney (pronounced ) is the most populous city in Australia, with a metropolitan area population of 4,119,190, and 151,920 in the City of Sydney, as of the 2006 census. ... 1915 (MCMXV) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar). ... A casualty is a person who is the victim of an accident, injury, or trauma. ... December 12 is the 346th day (347th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 19 days remaining. ...

"Cooee" outside of Australia

India

It is believed that the word "cooee" is also used in the south Indian (Western Ghat) peninsular regions. The word has the same meaning as Australian word "cooee"^{[citation needed]}.

United Kingdom

This word was also used by young children in western Scotland in the 1950s as a means of calling in friends at long distance^{[citation needed]}. Motto (Latin) No one provokes me with impunity Cha togar mfhearg gun dioladh (Scottish Gaelic) Wha daur meddle wi me?(Scots)1 Anthem (Multiple unofficial anthems) Scotlands location in Europe Capital Edinburgh Largest city Glasgow Official languages English, Gaelic and Scots1 Government Constitutional monarchy  -  Monarch Queen Elizabeth II...

References

1. ^ The Macquarie Concise Dictionary, The Macquarie Library, 1998, Sydney, ISBN 0949757950