Trail Off Tuesdays: The Great Emu War

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Ever wondered what happens when a modern military faces off against birds? The Great Emu War of 1932 stands as one of history's most bizarre military campaigns, where Australia's government deployed soldiers with machine guns against 20,000 emus devastating wheat crops in Western Australia.

The true solution came years later with the extension of the "emu fence"—a barrier stretching thousands of kilometres across Western Australia. 

The Great Emu War now lives on as beloved Australian folklore, a reminder that sometimes nature simply refuses to cooperate with even our most determined efforts.

 Follow Clue Trail for more strange-but-true stories from history's oddest corners, and share your own bizarre historical discoveries with us—your suggestion might become our next episode!

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Episode Transcript

Host (00:19):
Welcome back to the Trail Off Tuesdays, where we take a
short detour into the oddestcorners of history.
Strange stories, real peopleand things that make you say
that can't be true, but it is.
Today's episode takes us to oneof my favourite places,

(00:44):
Australia.
The year is 1932, and thegovernment is struggling with an
unexpected problem giant birds,and not just a few, but
thousands of them, but thousandsof them.
What followed was a militaryoperation, actual soldiers with

(01:08):
machine guns and a war that,unbelievably, the birds won.
This is the Great Emu War InWestern Australia.

(01:36):
After World War I, veterans weregiven farmland to help them
resettle.
This sounded like a great ideato begin with, but the land was
very hard to work.
By the early 1930s, thosefarmers were struggling.

(01:59):
Drought, poor soil condition,economic hardship from the Great
Depression and then, to top itoff, a sudden invasion Around
20,000 emus migrating inlandafter breeding season, storm
through the region in search tosettle in the delicious wheat

(02:19):
crops.
The birds trampled crops,knocked down fences and proved
unstoppable.
Farmers couldn't even scarethem off, so, left with no other
option, they asked thegovernment for help.
And what did the government do?
Well, they went from zero to ahundred really quick, and

(02:45):
instead of looking for morereasonable options, to begin
with they sent soldiers Withmachine guns.
In November 1932, the Australiangovernment launched a mission

(03:08):
led by Major Meredith.
He and two soldiers headed intothe bush with two machine guns
and 10,000 rounds of ammunition.
Their objective was simple.
Kill enough emus to drive themaway to protect the wheat farms.
Simple plan in theory.

(03:29):
How hard could it be right?
Very hard, it seemed, as theemus weren't having it.
These birds were fast, agile andthey always travelled in
unpredictable groups.
The soldiers couldn't get aclean shot.
On their first attempt.
A flock scattered before thegun could even fire.

(03:53):
Another time, they arranged anambush at the dam, but fewer
than a dozen birds were killedand about a thousand fled.
Even mounting a gun on a truckdidn't help.
The terrain was too rough andthe birds outran the vehicle

(04:13):
Because, you see, emus aren'tjust big, goofy birds.
These fightless giants can runup to 50 kilometers an hour,
pivot on a dime and travel inunpredictable, scattered groups.
That makes them impossible tocorner.
Combine that with their sharpervision and instinct to flee

(04:34):
rather than fight, and you'vegot a bird that's built to dodge
danger.
It was like fighting a bunch offeathered ninjas.
It was like fighting a bunch offeathered ninjas.
So who won in the end?
Well, it wasn't the humans.

(05:01):
After about a month the missionwas quietly called off.
Out of the tens of thousands ofemus, fewer than 1,000 have
been killed.
The rest had simplyoutmaneuvered the military again
and again.
Major Meredith reportedly saidIf we had a military division
with the bullet-carryingcapacity of these birds you

(05:26):
would face any army in the world.
The soldiers even began tocredit the enemy with unmatched
skills.
They reported that the emusappeared to have picked pack
leaders to stand watch, aidingin their escape.
Newspapers mocked the effort.
The emails had quite literallyoutgunned the Australian army.

(05:52):
The government never launchedanother military bird campaign.
Instead, they provided thefarmers with ammunition to take
care of the problem themselves,to take care of the problem
themselves, which still didn'thelp much.
So after all these effortsproved useless, the Australian

(06:12):
government turned into a morepassive but more effective and
very expensive solution.
Fences by 1953 they haveextended what became known as
the emu fence, which was asection of the larger
rabbit-proof fence systemstretching thousands of

(06:34):
kilometres across WesternAustralia.
Its purpose To keep the emusand other pests from migrating
into farmland during thebreeding season.
Unlike machine guns and endlessammo.
The fence didn't jam or messand moths didn't stop every
single bird.

(06:55):
It definitely helped reduce thedestruction of crops and gave
the farmers a chance to breatheus a chance to breathe.
But the Emu war became a legend.
A national embarrassment turnedinto a surreal moment in

(07:15):
history and now a favourite bitof pub trivia, memes and
podcasts everywhere.
So next time someone asks who'sthe most undefeated army in
history?
Just remember the emus ofWestern Australia.
Thanks for straying off themain trail with me today.

(07:37):
Trail Off Tuesdays Return nextweek with another short and
strange story you won't believeis real.
Make sure you're following ClueTrail.
Leave a quick review if youenjoyed this one and send us
your favourite bizarre cases.
We might just feature yoursnext.
See you next week, thank you.