When Australia Declared War on Birds
Imagine a government turning heavy military hardware against its own national emblem and losing. That is exactly what happened in November 1932, when Australia dispatched soldiers armed with Lewis machine guns to the Campion district of Western Australia. Their declared enemy? A swarm of flightless birds that stood taller than a man’s waist and could sprint faster than a horse at full gallop. Newspapers worldwide lampooned the outcome as “The Great Emu War,” a surreal episode in which the emus emerged undefeated and the humans retreated in embarrassment.
Why Did Farmers Want Military Help?
The Great Depression had already pushed wheat prices to rock-bottom levels. On top of that, a severe drought in 1932 drew roughly 20,000 emus away from the parched interior toward the newly developed wheat belt east of Perth. Farmers, many of them World War I veterans, watched flocks trample fences, devour crops, and turn already-precious farmland into dust bowls. Desperate, they turned to the Minister of Defence, Sir George Pearce, requesting military assistance. Pearce, eager to demonstrate the government’s support for struggling rural communities, agreed—reportedly without consulting other cabinet members. He dispatched a small detachment under the command of Major G. P. W. Meredith, armed with two Lewis guns and 10,000 rounds of ammunition.
The Battlefield: Campion District
The operation began on 2 November 1932. Meredith’s instructions were simple: herd the emus into clusters and mow them down with sustained machine-gun fire. What sounded straightforward on paper disintegrated within hours. Emus, it turns out, do not behave like enemy infantry. When startled, they scatter in every direction at up to 50 km/h (about 30 mph), zig-zagging unpredictably across the arid scrub. The first ambush emptied an entire 97-round magazine for “maybe a dozen kills,” according to ornithologist Dominic Serventy, who interviewed soldiers later that year and summarized their frustrations in the journal Emu. Bird carcasses were hard to verify because wounded emus sprinted off, disappearing into mallee thickets.
Emus Show Off Tactical Genius
After several days of skirmishes, an astonished Meredith reported that the emus had begun employing “guerrilla tactics.” Small advance parties would lure gunners into firing, then the main flock would split and rush away while the Lewis guns overheated. A Dayboro Chronicle correspondent joked that the birds must have “appointed commanders” because they advanced in loose formations reminiscent of mounted infantry. Whether or not the emus coordinated consciously, their six-foot stride and superb peripheral vision turned a cull into a farce. On 4 November, parliamentarian Leonard Richardson scolded Pearce during Question Time: “The emus have proved that they are not so simple as some honorable members opposite thought.”
The First Retreat
By 8 November, Meredith’s supply tally told the story. Rough estimates (the official figure has been lost) place ammunition expenditure at roughly 2,500 rounds for fewer than 400 confirmed dead birds, giving the emus an approximate kill ratio of one bullet per six birds, or worse. Ammunition shortages and media ridicule spurred Sir George Pearce to suspend operations. Newspapers such as The Argus ran satirical cartoons depicting emus pinning medals on one another while soldiers scraped yolk from Lewis gun receivers. Public backlash forced a temporary cease-fire.
Round Two: The Birds Strike Back
Pressured by renewed farmer pleas, Meredith returned to the field on 13 November with stricter rules of engagement: targets had to be stationary, and bursts were limited to five-round clips to conserve ammunition. Despite these restrictions, results remained pitifully ineffective. On one occasion a flock of roughly 1,000 emus approached a concealed ambush site. Gunners opened fire just as the birds simultaneously veered away. Anecdotal counts claimed fewer than twenty kills. After four more days the Minister of Defence cut the budget permanently. The military officially withdrew on 10 December 1932. In his confidential post-mission report—declassified by the National Archives of Australia in 1993—Meredith reluctantly confessed that “if we had a military division with the bullet-carrying capacity of these birds, it would face any army in the world.”
How Many Emus Actually Died?
Historical consensus, documented by Murray Johnson in 2006 in the Journal of Australian Studies, suggests confirmed kills hovered around 300–500. Eyewitnesses agree that hundreds more were wounded and later perished unseen, but the figure never matched farmers’ inflated hopes. Crucially, the breeding population was essentially untouched; pigeon-sized chicks hatched the following spring, replacing lost adults within months.
Public Reaction and Global Mockery
The affair became instant fodder for international comedy. America’s Literary Digest dubbed Australia “the only nation on earth to lose a war against birds,” while British Pathé film reels chronicled bemused soldiers in slouch hats firing at distant specks on the horizon. Domestically, opposition newspapers used the humiliation to hammer the government for fiscal imprudence during a depression. Pearce, ever the pragmatist, transferred blame onto “recalcitrant nature,” but the episode stained his reputation. Today, the story resurfaces every time Australia debates lethal wildlife control, most recently during 2021 camel culls in South Australia.
Legacy and Lessons Learned
The practical failure of the Great Emu War forced Western Australia to adopt civilian, rather than military, wildlife management. Authorities experimented with emu-proof fencing, subsidized by the Wheat Board, and later introduced targeted bounty systems that rewarded farmers for shot beaks rather than wasted ammunition. Ironically, emus received full federal protection in 1999 under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.
Militarily, the episode embarrassed defence planners who saw light machine guns as tools of suppression against any “enemy.” Historian Chris Clark, writing for the Australian Army History Unit in 2016, points out that the fiasco accelerated doctrine review toward mobility and aerial observation—skills Australia would desperately need in the Pacific theatre less than a decade later.
Why Do We Keep Retelling the Story?
Part comedy, part cautionary tale, The Great Emu War distills human hubris. When technology fails against instinctive guile, the underdog—or underbird—prevails. The event has inspired documentaries, graphic novels, and even an Australian comedy film titled “The Emu War,” announced in 2022. Each retelling amplifies the birds’ mythical resilience, reinforcing a shared cultural memory: nature does not negotiate.
Could It Happen Again?
Modern Australia employs helicopters, thermal imaging, and GPS tracking to manage overabundant wildlife. Yet emus remain formidable. In 2020, residents of Tenterfield, New South Wales, petitioned for military-grade fencing after 400 birds flattened cereal crops. Authorities instead funded non-lethal deterrents—flashing lights and sonic cannons—demonstrating that, nearly a century on, officials remember 1932, and nobody wants to rerun a war already lost by Homo sapiens.
Takeaway for Science and Policy
The Great Emu War foreshadows modern debates about lethal control, from feral horses in the American West to wild boars in Europe. Biology often outperforms ballistics. Effective wildlife management blends ecological understanding with community economics. As the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) reminds lawmakers, “coexistence is cheaper than combat.” For students of history, the episode offers a humorous yet humbling reminder: every so often, biology shows up armed with claws, beaks, and a superior battle plan.
Sources
- Johnson, M. (2006). “Feathered foes: Représentation and remembrance of the Great Emu War.” Journal of Australian Studies, 30(88), 43-52.
- National Archives of Australia: Series A431, item 1949/696 “Protection of wheat from emus by military operations.”
- Serventy, D. L. (1933). “Bird notes on the Emu.” Emu 32: 77-80.
- Clark, C. (2016). “The Emu War 1932.” Australian Army History Unit occasional paper.
- CSIRO Wildlife & Ecology Division briefing notes: “Non-lethal Emu Deterrent Trials,” published 2018.
Disclaimer: This article was generated by an AI language model to synthesize publicly available historical sources. It does not constitute official historical interpretation.