Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(Aus./N.Z.) within hailing distance, within easy reach, near; thus out of cooee, at a distance.

[1827		P. Cunningham New South Wales II 23: In calling to each other at a distance, the natives make use of the word Coo-ee, as we do the word Hollo, prolonging the sound of the coo, and closing that of the ee with a shrill jerk [...] [It has] become of general use throughout the colony; and a newcomer, in desiring an individual to call another back, soon learns to say ‘Coo-ee’ to him instead of Hollo to him].
[1847		[A. Harris] (con. 1820s) Settlers & Convicts 70: That shrill coo-eeh which the whites have learnt from the blacks, and which conveys the human voiceto so great a distance].
1858		Hobart Town Dly Mercury (Tas.) 10 July 5/6: The building, from which, being within a cooee of the top of Mount Wellington, a most glorious view of hill and valley, water and city, is to be obtained.
1875		Hamilton Spectator (Vic.) 20 Nov. 2/4: Thirty-nine ‘traitors to the people’s cause’ had the audacity to sit on the Ministerial Benches, whilst only thirty-one could be got to sit within a parliamentary ‘cooee’ of the great protective chief.
1880		Bulletin (Sydney) 11 Dec. 4/4: Coming, after a little more edging, to within a coo-ee, the servant asked [etc].
1887		[G.L. Apperson] in All Year Round 30 July 67/1: A common mode of expression is to be ‘within cooey’ of a place [...] Now to be ‘within cooey’ of Sydney is to be at the distance of an easy journey therefrom.
1891		H. Lawson ‘The Shanty on the Rise’ in Roderick (1967–9) I 155: And I mind how weary teamsters struggled on while it was light, / Just to camp within a cooey of the Shanty for the night.
[1900		‘The Wayback Family’ in Sun. Times (Sydney) 9 Dec. 5/3: [H]e took a deep breath, gave a coo-ee! coo-ee! coo-ee! that re- sounded like the shriek of a steam tram].
1903		J. Furphy Such is Life 50: There hasn’t been a smell of a sheep within coo-ee of the swamp for the last three months.
1905		Otago Witness (NZ) 24 May 82/4: She was within cooee of her husband.
1912		Bulletin (Sydney) 29 Aug. 47/1: There were no cabs within coo-ee, so we waited.
1914		Bulletin (Sydney) 23 July 22/2: No wonder; for, during a morning stroll, anywhere out of coo-ee of the capital, one can see numbers of these beautiful fowl.
1916		‘Anzac’ On the Anzac Trail 39: [E]ven the niggers, [i.e. Egyptians] keen as they were to sell their oranges, wouldn’t come within coo-ee of our mob.
1941		N.Y. Herald Trib. 29 June 9/3: On the golf course a man may make a drive which he feels must be very close on the green. His partner laughs deprecatingly and says, ‘You didn’t come within a cooee of it’.
1955		N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 232/1: cooee – a cry used in the bush country to summon help. to cooee – to cry for help. within cooee – close at hand.
1976		D. Ireland Glass Canoe (1982) 186: He put work on her and didn’t let up for one minute [...] but he didn’t come within coo-ee of getting it.
1986		C. Bowles G’DAY 99: When you’re this far away you’re not within coo-ee.
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 30/1: cooee Aboriginal call adapted by Australasian attention-seekers and housewives – within cooee able to be hailed – not within cooee far from achieving a goal.
1992		R.G. Barrett White Shoes 196: Every spieler, spiv and dropkick within cooee knew it.
1997		J. Birmingham Tasmanian Babes Fiasco (1998) 91: In fact very few even came within a cooee of that.
2004		T. Winton Turning (2005) 136: It wasn’t just that every man within coo-ee wanted to get into her pants.
2018		C. Hammer Scrublands [ebook] The cops won’t let them get within cooee.
2022		in D. Andrew Aussie Sl.