Austral English. Edward Ellis Morris
is the copper head or copper colour, and the red bream. Juveniles rank the smallest of the fry, not over an inch or two in length, as the cock-schnapper. The fact, however, is now generally admitted that all these are one and the same genus, merely in different stages of growth."
<hw>Cod</hw>, <i>n</i>. This common English name of the <i>Gadus morrhua</i> is applied to many fishes in Australia of various families, Gadoid and otherwise. In Melbourne it is given to <i>Lotella callarias</i>, Guenth., and in New South Wales to several fishes of the genus <i>Serranus</i>. <i>Lotella</i> is a genus of the family <i>Gadidae</i>, to which the European Cod belongs; <i>Serranus</i> is a Sea perch (q.v.). See <i>Rock Cod, Black Rock Cod, Red Rock Cod, Black Cod, Elite Cod, Red Cod, Murray Cod, Cloudy Bay Cod, Ling, Groper, Hapuku, and Haddock</i>.
<hw>Coffee-Bush</hw>, <i>n</i>. a settlers' name for the New Zealand tree the <i>Karamu</i> (q.v.). Sometimes called also </hw>Coffee-plant.
<hw>Coffer-fish</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Trunk-fish</i> (q.v.).
<hw>Coffee Plant</hw>, or <hw>Coffee Berry</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given in Tasmania to the Tasmanian <i>Native Holly</i> (q.v.).
<hw>Colonial Experience</hw>, <i>n</i>. and used as <i>adj</i>. same as <i>cadet</i> (q.v.) in New Zealand; a young man learning squatting business, gaining his colonial experience. Called also <i>jackaroo</i> (q.v.).
1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `A Colonial Reformer,' p. 95:
"You're the first `colonial experience' young fellow that it ever occurred to within my knowledge."
<hw>Colonial Goose</hw>, <i>n</i>. a boned leg of mutton stuffed with sage and onions. In the early days the sheep was almost the sole animal food. Mutton was then cooked and served in various ways to imitate other dishes.
<hw>Colour</hw>, <i>n</i>. sc. of gold. It is sometimes used with `good,' to mean plenty of gold: more usually, the `colour' means just a little gold, enough to show in the dish.
1860. Kelly, `Life in Victoria,' vol. i. p. 222:
" … they had not, to use a current phrase, `raised the colour.'"
1890. Rolf Boldrewood. `Miner's Right,' c. xiv. p. 149:
"This is the fifth claim he has been in since he came here, and the first in which he has seen the colour."
1891. W. Lilley, `Wild West of Tasmania,' p. 14:
"After spending a little time there, and not finding more than a few colours of gold, he started for Mount Heemskirk."
<hw>Convictism</hw>, <i>n</i>. the system of transportation of convicts to Australia and Van Diemen's Land, now many years abolished.
1852. J. West, `History of Tasmania,' vol. i. p. 309:
"May it remain nailed to the mast until these colonies are emancipated from convictism."
1864. `Realm,' Feb. 24, p.4 (`O.E.D.'):
"No one who has not lived in Australia can appreciate the profound hatred of convictism that obtains there."
1880. G. Sutherland, `Tales of Goldfields,' p. 16:
"They preferred to let things remain as they were, convictism included."
<hw>Coobah</hw>, <i>n</i>. an aboriginal name for the tree <i>Acacia salicina</i>, Lindl., <i>N.O.Leguminosae</i>. See <i>Acacia</i>. The spellings vary, and sometimes begin with a K.
1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Squatter's Dream,' v. 46:
"A deep reach of the river, shaded by couba trees and river-oaks."
1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Colonial Reformer,' c. xxviii. p. 400:
"The willowy coubah weeps over the dying streamlet."
<hw>Coo-ee</hw>, or <hw>Cooey</hw>, <i>n</i>. and <i>interj</i>. spelt in various ways. See quotations. A call borrowed from the aborigines and used in the bush by one wishing to find or to be found by another. In the vocabulary of native words in `Hunter's Journal,' published in 1790, we find "Cow-ee = to come."
1827. P. Cunningham, `New South Wales,' vol. ii. p. 23:
"In calling to each other at a distance, the natives make use of the word <i>Coo-ee</i>, as we do the word <i>Hollo</i>, prolonging the sound of the <i>coo</i>, and closing that of the <i>ee</i> 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 `<i>Coo-ee'</i> to him, instead of Hollo to him."
1830. R. Dawson, `Present State of Australia,' p. 162:
"He immediately called `coo-oo-oo' to the natives at the fire."
1836. Ross, `Hobart Town Almanack,' p. 84:
"There yet might be heard the significant `<i>cooy'</i> or `quhy,' the true import of which was then unknown to our ears."
1839. T. L. Mitchell, `Three Expeditions,' p. 46:
"Although Mr. Brown made the woods echo with his `cooys.'"
[See also p. 87, note.]
1845. Clement Hodgkinson, `Australia from Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay,' p. 28:
"We suddenly heard the loud shrill <i>couis</i> of the natives."
1846. C. P. Hodgson, `Reminiscences of Australia,' p. 231:
"Their cooieys are not always what we understand by the word, viz., a call in which the first note is low and the second high, uttered after sound of the word cooiey. This is a note which congregates all together and is used only as a simple `Here.'"
1852. J. West, `History of Tasmania,' vol. ii. p. 91:
"Like the natives of New South Wales, they called to each other from a great distance by the <i>cooey</i>; a word meaning `come to me.' The Sydney blacks modulated this cry with successive inflexions; the Tasmanian uttered it with less art. It is a sound of great compass. The English in the bush adopt it: the first syllable is prolonged; the second is raised to a higher key, and is sharp and abrupt."
1862. W. Landsborough, `Exploration of Australia,' [Footnote] p. 24:
"<i>Coo-oo-oo-y</i> is a shrill treble cry much used in the bush by persons wishful to find each other. On a still night it will travel a couple of miles, and it is thus highly serviceable to lost or benighted travellers."
1869. J. F. Townend, `Reminiscences of Australia,' p. 155:
"The jingling of bells round the necks of oxen, the cooey of the black fellow … constituted the music of these desolate districts."
1873. J. B. Stephens, `Black Gin,' p. 82:
"Hi! … cooey! you fella … open 'im lid."
1880. Fison and Howitt, `Kamilaroi and Kurnai,' p. 183:
"A particular `cooee' … was made known to the young men when they were initiated."
1880. G. Sutherland, `Tales of the Goldfields,' p. 40:
"From the woods they heard a prolonged cooee, which evidently proceeded from some one lost in the bush."
1885. R. M. Praed, `Australian Life,' p. 276:
"Two long farewell coo-ees, which died away in the silence of the bush."
1890. E. W. Hornung, `A Bride from the Bush,' p. 184:
"The bride encircled her lips with her two gloved palms, and uttered a cry that few of the hundreds who heard it ever forgot—`coo-ee!' That was the startling cry as nearly as it can be written. But no letters