In Australia, the loud, shrill call of "Cooee!" is often used over long distances in rural and mountainous areas to draw attention to oneself. What is it about this word that makes it more audible over distance and is there a word more suited to drawing attention to myself should I be lost in the outback?

Tom Langford, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

(Image: stock.xchng, sciucaness)

Plenty of speculation on this one so we're keeping the file open for a while. Thanks to those who point out that "Gooweet" was devised by Australian Aborigines for gaining long-distance attention, while a few hundred years back "hoooooha" was popular in Sri Lanka - Ed