The Emu War: Australia’s Army Fought Birds.

In 1932, Australia went to war with emus. And lost.

Yes, you read that right.

In 1932, Australia had a big emu problem. These giant, flightless birds, native to the country, were breaking into farmers’ lands and eating crops such as wheat, destroying even more as they trampled around. The holes they left in fences allowed other animals, like rabbits, to get in and do more damage.

This ‘emu invasion’ had been a nuisance to farmers for many years. But in 1932 the issue worsened, as drought caused a much larger number of emus than usual to migrate into Western Australia. This posed a serious economic threat to the region, especially as Australia was, like the rest of the world, in the midst of the Great Depression.

The emu invasion hit the Campion district the hardest. Farmers there were mostly World War I veterans who were inexperienced in farming and already struggling to make a living. Unable to deal with the pesky emus themselves, they asked for assistance from the government. The Minister for Defence, Sir George Pearce, agreed to their request, wanting to show the farmers that the government took their issues seriously.

In November 1932, Pearce dispatched three soldiers of the Royal Australian Artillery to Campion to kill 20,000 emus. They were: Major Gwynydd Purves Wynne-Aubrey Meredith in command of the operation, Sergeant S. McMurray, and Gunner J. O’Halloran. The trio was armed with two Lewis machine guns and 10,000 bullets. Pearce also sent a news cinematographer to accompany them, believing it could be good PR for the government. (It was not.)

And thus began the Great Emu War.

Unfortunately for the humans involved, they totally underestimated these brilliant birds.

On 2 November, the three soldiers moved in coordinated formation to confront a group of around 50 emus. When they opened fire, the emus broke up into smaller groups and ran away in all directions. This made it impossible to gun them down en masse, especially given their ability to run at nearly 30 miles per hour. The soldiers quickly realised that glancing bullets couldn’t hurt them, as emus are resilient birds with tough hides beneath their feathers. Even some of those that had been directly shot continued to run away, only dying of their injuries later. Major Meredith was impressed by their resilience, later commenting that the emus can “face machine guns with the invulnerability of tanks.”

On 4 November, the soldiers changed tactic. They set up their guns at a water hole and waited for the emus to congregate there, intending to ambush them. They held fire until over 1,000 emus were at point-blank range. As fate would have it, one of the guns jammed after a few rounds, and the emus scattered again. Less than a dozen emus had been killed.

Over the next few days, the soldiers continued their assault, with the results being the same. The farmers tried to help them by attempting to herd the emus with trucks, though this also proved useless. At one point, they tried a new strategy, mounting one of the guns on a truck to chase and shoot at them. But the emus were faster on the rough terrain, and the gunner was unable to aim at them.

Perhaps the best part of this whole fiasco was how these plucky emus themselves adapted to this war. Each group had a tall leader that served as a lookout, warning the others at the first sign of approaching danger and giving them enough time to escape.

By 8 November, the mission was considered a failure, and the embarrassed soldiers were withdrawn. News coverage had turned it into a national joke, and the emus were hailed the victors of the war. While the exact number of emus killed was uncertain, the official report claimed upwards of 300, still way below the target of 20,000.

The emus continued to plunder crops, prompting the farmers to demand support again. The military unit returned with their machine guns on 12 November, resuming their campaign until 10 December. In his report, Major Meredith claimed to have killed 986 emus, with another 2,500 later dying from their injuries. However, these numbers have been disputed and thought to be greatly exaggerated.

Australian ornithologist Dominic Serventy provided a great recap of the war:

'The machine-gunners’ dreams of point blank fire into serried masses of Emus were soon dissipated. The Emu command had evidently ordered guerrilla tactics, and its unwieldy army soon split up into innumerable small units that made use of the military equipment uneconomic. A crestfallen field force therefore withdrew from the combat area after about a month.'

The farmers repeated their requests for military support in later years,

but these were all denied. Instead, by 1934 the government continued to offer bounties for emu hunting and supplied farmers with ammo. This strategy was was more effective; within six months, around 57,000 emus had been killed. The bounty system remained for decades.

Thankfully, despite humans, the emu population of Australia remains stable to this day.