#Deanehistory 151.
This is the story of the Great Emu War of 1932.
The great generation of men who had fought the First World War returned to challenging prospects in Australia. Many veterans were gifted parcels of land to farm, especially in Western Australia - but times were
This is the story of the Great Emu War of 1932.
The great generation of men who had fought the First World War returned to challenging prospects in Australia. Many veterans were gifted parcels of land to farm, especially in Western Australia - but times were
hard and the Great Depression of 1929 made things worse.
That said, the worst enemy of all for the farmers wasn’t the economy. It was the emu.
This great galumphing flightless bird can go for weeks without eating. But it really prefers not to.
That said, the worst enemy of all for the farmers wasn’t the economy. It was the emu.
This great galumphing flightless bird can go for weeks without eating. But it really prefers not to.
In fact, it turns out that what it really likes to do is get together with a bunch of its mates and eat your crops, crash through fences letting other critters through, and generally ruin your life.
These farmers were no shrinking violets. They’d been trained in shooting, and shooting is what they did. To no avail, that they could tell. For a big old waddling target, the bird was surprisingly hard to hit… and didn’t always die if you got it… and if you did pick one off?
There’ll be another ten along in a minute.
With battlefield experiences at the forefront of their minds, the farmers told government: tell you what, we know what’ll fix this – machine guns.
With battlefield experiences at the forefront of their minds, the farmers told government: tell you what, we know what’ll fix this – machine guns.
Rather than scoffing at this, realising the huge challenges this implacable enemy of the Diggers offered, & realising that Australia’s pride in looking after its returned servicemen was on the line, Canberra’s position was… “OK, but maybe we shouldn’t give machine guns to YOU.”
So it was that in 1932… The army was sent in.
But, just as the farmers had already learned, it was the army’s turn to realise that emus are both surprisingly elusive and surprisingly tough. Getting in range was hard as hell. If you got near enough, they’d take off and
But, just as the farmers had already learned, it was the army’s turn to realise that emus are both surprisingly elusive and surprisingly tough. Getting in range was hard as hell. If you got near enough, they’d take off and
they could really move it. Didn’t bother them much; they’d just move on to ruin the next farm, after all. And the emus could move faster than the soldiers, even when they mounted machine guns on trucks and took after them.
Plus the noise made by the trucks meant that they couldn’t even sneak up on their prey, either.
Like a cartoon road runner, this frustrating opponent wore the enemy down with sangfroid. Months had been spent by many armed men in this endeavour. They reviewed their success
Like a cartoon road runner, this frustrating opponent wore the enemy down with sangfroid. Months had been spent by many armed men in this endeavour. They reviewed their success
or lack of it. They realised it was taking them an average of ten bullets to get a single emu. And, after all this, the emu population was still going UP. Females can mate and lay multiple eggs several times a season, and the eggs take a mere two months to hatch.
In the face of these insuperable odds, the Aussies gave up. Deterrence would form the core of efforts against hungry and destructive emus hereafter.
Whilst the issue persisted for decades to come – with the Australian government releasing half a million rounds of .303 ammunition to farmers as late as 1950 – the result was unambiguous. The emus had won the Great Emu War.
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