A newspaper article reporting on the war.
In 1932, Australia found itself sadly at war. It was one not against other countries or people, but rather against an army of emus. Emus are large, flightless birds that can grow to be as tall as 6 feet and run at speeds of near 50 kilometers per hour. During most of the year, they roam the inland regions of Australia, but during their breeding season, they migrate towards the coast.
After World War I, the Australian Government had put into place a soldier settlement scheme that involved the distribution of land to veterans in Western Australia for the purpose of farming and making more agriculturally productive areas. The planners, however, did not take into account the impact of the emus’ annual migration. When these birds found the newly-established wheat farms, they started to treat themselves with an all-you-can-eat buffet! They began to feast on the crops, turning a minor problem into a major crisis for the farmers, who, by that time, had already been struggling to make their farms work.
With the cries for help from the farmers becoming louder, the government decided to intervene, and they immediately started using army tactics. Major G.P.W. Meredith from the Seventh Heavy Battery of the Royal Australian Artillery was chosen to lead the mission. They believed that the Lewis machine guns, which were obsolete World War I weapons, would make the killing of the emus much easier, at least compared to combating them more physically.
The first encounter occurred near Campion, where a large number of emus gathered. The soldiers set up their machine guns, and they were, for the most part, expecting an easy victory. However, when they started firing, the emus went in all directions on the uneven ground, which made them rather challenging targets. By the end of the first day of shooting, only a few emus had been taken down, which was far below their expectations.
Despite this loss, the military didn’t give up and began looking for alternative plans. They thought that they would be able to shoot and take better aim from moving vehicles. Thus, from the backs of trucks, the soldiers pursued the emus in the warm sunlight and tried to shoot at them. However, this plan failed as well when the dust raised by the vehicles caused the guns to jam. In addition, the emus, with their natural agility, spread out and escaped the soldiers' aim. After several days of fighting, only 200 emus had been killed, and there were countless more causing havoc.
Realizing that the military approach was not working, the government turned to changing tactics. They introduced a bounty system, paying local hunters to kill every emu they could catch. This approach proved somewhat successful, but the job of managing the emus was hardly complete. By the end of the campaign, the actual number of emus killed was likely past a thousand, but the damage caused by these large birds had already been done.
Soon enough, this war against the Emus spread across Australia and made its way into media and folklore. Newspapers joked and made fun of the army’s incompetence when it came to controlling the birds, and they portrayed the event as a humorous defeat where nature outsmarted man’s plans.
In the years that followed, particularly in 1934, another effort was made to manage the emu population. This time, they came prepared with more thoughtful planning. They used better fencing techniques and more selective culling, which were more effective in reducing crop damage.
The story of the Great Emu War, while not widely known globally, serves as a very funny reminder of the complexities that exist in land and wildlife management. It demonstrates how even the simplest creatures can challenge human ingenuity, and it offers lessons in humility and the importance of understanding and respecting the natural world. This event, although humorous in retrospect, really demonstrates the need for strategic, ecosystem-aware approaches in agriculture and wildlife interaction.