BrainStuff Classics: What Was the Emu War?

Following World War II, Austrialia became embroiled in another war -- with a population of emu. Learn how the Emu War unfolded in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://history.howstuffworks.com/historical-events/ridiculous-history-emu-war.htm

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Hey brain Stuff. I'm Lauren Bogelbaum and this is a
classic from the vault. In this one, we did into
the weird moment in history when Australia went to war
with a local population of EMUs and absolutely lost.

Speaker 3 (00:26):
Hey brain Stuff, Lauren bogolbam here with the story of
the Emu War. It begins after World War One when
soldiers returned home to Australia. The government was eager to
show its support for veterans.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
Take land.

Speaker 3 (00:38):
The government said, grow wheat and we'll pay handsomely for it.
It was a mission for the bright eyed and hopeful,
for men eager to cultivate their futures. As they cultivated
the soil in Western Australia. You could say the plan
was flawed from the start. The government had ninety thousand
hectors that's two hundred and twenty two thousand acres to
go around, but that wasn't enough for the nearly five

(00:59):
thousand veterans who wanted it. Land was doled out as
it became available, and the choicest lots were given away first.
The remaining veterans got land in Perth, which was not
ideal for farming. What's more, in the years that followed
the initial land handout, in the early nineteen twenties, Western
Australia combated drought, frost, and a significant rabbit infestation. While
veterans labored against the elements and the wildlife, Mounting financial

(01:23):
challenges from the Great Depression threatened to undercut all they'd
been promised. The Australian government had initially pledged to pay
the veterans four shillings per bushel of wheat, but the
bill tied to that sum was killed in the Senate.
Another bill proposing three shillings per bushel actually passed, but
the veterans.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
Were never paid.

Speaker 3 (01:39):
At last, in nineteen thirty one, the Wheat Bounty Act
made good on the government's promise to pay for wheat
at the staggeringly low price of four and a half
pence per bushel. Let's put this in perspective. Pence is
equivalent to pennies. A shilling is twelve pence, and there
are twenty shillings in a pound in today's market, one
British pound is worth about a buck fifth, So these

(02:01):
veterans were being promised smallish sums of money to start
and delivered way less, originally promised a fifth of a
pound per bushel and settling for just one twentieth of
a pound per bushel, ten times less than what was promised. However,
by this point the veterans were desperate to make money
off of their wheat crops, and the stage was set
for a modestly fruitful harvest. No one could have anticipated

(02:22):
what happened next. In the annals of history, there's perhaps
no stranger of foe that the Australian emu, a flightless
bird that can stand about six and a half feet
that's two meters tall and weigh close to one hundred
pounds that's forty five kilograms. And at an even stranger
battle of man with machine gun versus giant bird, the
giant bird won. But in warfare it's essential to know

(02:45):
the enemy. So let's pause and examine the bird that
dogged the veterans. We spoke with Eric Slovak, bird keeper
at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park. He said EMUs are
solitary for the most part. They do get together in
breeding seasons, but EMUs would prefer to be by themselves.
The exception is when they're foraging. Slovak likens that behavior

(03:05):
to humans going out solo to a fast food lunch.
He said, you're at McDonald's around lots of people, but
you're not socializing.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
You're just there for the food. Okay.

Speaker 3 (03:15):
So they're big, solitary, hungry birds. Not much of a threat.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
Right.

Speaker 3 (03:20):
Multiply that emu you're envisioning by twenty thousand. That's how
many descended upon Western Australia in nineteen thirty two. Until
a decade earlier, in nineteen twenty two, EMUs had been
a protected species. After that time, they were reclassified as vermin.
Slovak explained, they'll eat anything they can get their mouths
on without hunting. They're grazers. They like nuts and berries,

(03:41):
baby grasses, which brings us back to wheat. Yep, they'll
eat that, faced with a seemingly endless buffet of it.
The opportunistic birds homed in on the veterans plots beaten
down by weather at a volatile financial market. The veterans
leaned hard on the government. Help us, they implored, so
one made GPW. Meredith wound up leading a military offensive

(04:03):
against the EMUs, but there were a few conditions. The
veterans had to foot the bill for the ammunition. Lewis
machine guns were used in EMU combat, and the veterans
had to provide food and lodging for the men assigned
to this curious mission. As a side note, a cinematographer
from Fox movie Tone accompanied the military to film the
EMU effort.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
Historians assume the footage would have been.

Speaker 3 (04:22):
Used in propaganda films to illustrate how the government was
aiding its veterans. But spoiler alert, the mission didn't go
exactly as planned. Armed with the knowledge that a slingshot
can take down an ordinary bird, you might hazard a
guess that a machine gun could wipe out EMUs easily,
but you would be wrong. Emos are made to run,
and when shot out, they're going to panic, and they

(04:44):
won't move in any reliable direction. And emo's legs, head,
and neck move with elegant fluidity while their bodies stay
parallel to the ground. Slovak explained, the body looks like
a wave. The legs good left, the head goes to
the right, and they run in all different directions like
dropped marbles.

Speaker 1 (05:01):
Meredith and his men couldn't get a.

Speaker 3 (05:02):
Straight shot at the EMUs who stayed out of range
of the machine guns, even when enterprising veterans suggested putting
them on vehicles and pursuing the birds as they ran.
The military wasted a ton of ammunition. Only two hundred
birds of the twenty thousand were actually killed, and not
only did the EMUs evade the troops, they destroyed even
more farmland in the process, tearing up the ground wherever

(05:22):
they ran. The veterans were dispirited and their land was devastated.
Meredith had a lot to answer for why had so
much ammunition been wasted and was the effort even humane?
Then there was the matter of money. The veterans promised
to pay for the ammo, but the mission ultimately failed.
Could the sun be forgiven? This example of ridiculous history

(05:42):
can't be tied up conclusively with a tidy bow, and
some details such as who was ultimately held responsible for
the cost of the ammunition, are unclear. We do know
that the veterans learned painfully from past performance that rifles,
not machine guns, were the best way to handle nuisance EMUs.
They continued their war in a one to one battle
Veteran against Bird, and the Australian government later placed a

(06:04):
bounty on EMUs to help control the population. But finally
we do suspect that the Fox cinematographer gots epic b
roll while on location. Today's episode is based on the
article Ridiculous History the EMU War on HowStuffWorks dot Com,

(06:24):
written by Candice Gibson. Brain Stuff is production of iHeartRadio
in partnership with HowStuffWorks dot Com and is produced by
Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts from my heart Radio. Visit
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts

Speaker 2 (06:36):
Or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.