THE GREAT EMU

WAR
Presented by A. John Yates
THE CONFLICT
The year was 1932.
After World War One, the Australian
government didn’t know what to do
with their soldiers, so they offered
them free farm land.
They were given poor fields far into
the unpopulated areas of Australia.
The Great Depression hit, the
government began offering subsidies
for wheat, that they never followed
through with.
The people were
poor and suffering,
30% were
unemployed.
Due to being
neglected by the
government,
Western Australia
was planning a
secession from the
rest of the
Australian
Federation.
In the early 1900s Australia built huge fences that stretched
hundreds of miles, separating the wild from the cultivated land.
This blocked the emus’ yearly migration route, leading many of
them to starve and die in the heat.
By 1932, the fence had been just old and broken enough for the
emus to get though.
Desperate due to a bad drought
that year, the emus headed
further inland in search of food
and water, they ended up finding
the farm fields.
An estimated 20,000 emus began
spoiling the crops.
They also made holes in the fences
which allowed rabbit to get
through, making problems worse.
The angry ex-soldiers (now farmers)
went to Sir George Pearce, the
Minister of Defence, asking for
machine guns to deal with the
emus. He agreed without hesitation.
The government was trying to find a
way to get on the side of the people
to end the secession movement.
They hatched a plan to eradicate
the emus.
The soldiers sent out on the mission to help the farmers
were the commander, Major GPW Meredith of the Seventh
Heavy Battery of the Royal Australian Artillery, along with
two others, Sergeant S McMurray and Gunner J O'Halloran.
They were given two Lewis guns and 10,000 rounds of
ammunition.
FIRST ATTEMPT
 October 18, 1932

They were planning on

beginning the
extermination in
October, but due to
rain, they hadn’t
started.
They believed that
‘rain scatters emus’.
SECOND ATTEMPT
On November 2nd, the rain finally
stopped, so the men finally felt
confident enough to go out to where a
group of 50 emus had been spotted.
They were trying to shoot at them but
kept missing because they were set up
too far back, so the emus were out of
the range of their guns.
The locals in the area attempted to
herd the emus into an ambush, but it
only scattered them, making them
more difficult to target.
THIRD ATTEMPT
 November 5, 1932
On November 4th, 1000 emus
were spotted. Major GPW
Meredith planned an ambush
near where the emus were
headed.
After waiting until the birds
were close enough, their guns
all jammed and all the emus
scattered.
FOURTH ATTEMPT
By now, the soldiers were getting desperate. They
attempted to attach one of their Lewis guns to the back of
a truck and drive after the emus.
This method did not work as the emus were too fast, and
the terrain was too bumpy.
THE END OF THE
WAR
On the 8th of November, the
Australian House of Representatives
met to discuss the military action
that had taken place.
Due to lots of negative press
claiming that only few emus were
killed, Sir George Pearce decided to
recall the soldiers and end the war.
Over the 6 days that the war took
place, an estimated 50-500 emus
were killed, and 2500 rounds of
ammunition had been shot.
 Important Quotes

“Each pack seems to have its leader

now- a big black-plumed bird which
stands fully six feet high and keeps
watch while his mates carry out their
work of destruction and warns them
of our approach.”

“If we had a military division with the

bullet-carrying capacity of these birds
it would face any army in the world ...
They can face machine guns with the
invulnerability of tanks.”

- Major GPW Meredith

THE AFTERMATH
The government’s attempts to end
the secession movement failed.
A referendum for the secession of
Western Australia was held on
April 8, 1933.
There were 237,198 voters, and the
proposal of Western Australia
leaving the Australian Federation
was approved by ⅔ of the votes.
When the results were sent to the
British Parliament, they were
denied.
As for the emus, It didn’t work out
very well for them either.
The government began a bounty
system, where the farmers could kill
the emus themselves.
This method was way more
successful. 57,034 emus were killed
in within a 6-month period.
However, whenever the farmers
asked the government for military
assistance again, during the years
1934, 1943, and 1948, they were
always denied.
THE END
 News papers:
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/4504009

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/179525957?searchTerm=emu%20truck&searchLimits=dateFrom=1
932-11-04|||dateTo=1932-11-07

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/128938827?searchTerm=emu%20war&searchLimits=

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/82880800?searchTerm=emu&searchLimits=exactPhrase|||anyWo
rds|||notWords|||requestHandler|||dateFrom=1932-11-08|||dateTo=1932-11-10|||sortby

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/179537920?searchTerm=emu&searchLimits=exactPhrase|||anyW
ords|||notWords|||requestHandler|||dateFrom=1932-11-12|||dateTo=1932-11-13|||sortby

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/4509731

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/217998228?searchTerm=emu%20war&searchLimits=

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/79684444

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/18516559
 Online articles:

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/running-ponies/the-great-emu-war-in-which-some-large-fli
ghtless-birds-unwittingly-foiled-the-australian-army/

https://nomadsworld.com/great-emu-war/

http://www.sro.wa.gov.au/parliament/topic/westralia-shall-be-free-western-australian-secessio
n

https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1890/1540-9295-11.6.336