July 14, 2025 • 30 mins
What do you get when you cross rural farmland, a very resilient bird, and the Australian military? Only one of the most absurd "wars" ever fought. This is the story of Australia's fight against the emu menace, and all the bureaucracy, hijinks, and mishaps that happened along the way. Spoiler: the flightless birds gave the aussies a run for their money.
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(00:00):
Imagine this. You're a war veteran, a survivor
of Gallipoli, standing under thebrutal Western Australian sun in
1932. You've traded your trenches for
wheat fields, you're broke and your land is barely usable.
And now you're holding a Lewis machine gun.
Why? Because a six foot tall bird
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just stared you down and dared you to shoot first.
Welcome to Naked History, where we RIP off the fig leaf off the
past reveal the absurd, the extraordinary and the utterly
feather brained. I'm your host, Dylan Gasaway,
and today we're diving into a moment so surreal it sounds like
a Monty Python sketch crossed with a military after action
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report. The Great Australian Emu War.
Yes, it really happened. Yes, they did use machine guns.
And yes, the birds won. Let's get into it, shall we?
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Between 1914 and 1918, Australiadispatched more than 330,000
soldiers overseas to fight in the Great War, now known as
World War One. After the 1918 Armistice ended
the fighting, the Australian government instituted a program
to provide free farming land to its returning soldiers in order
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to reintroduce them back into civilian life.
In WA, the government established 48 farming estates
totaling almost 90,000 hectacres, or just a little over
200,000 acres in the area northeast of Perth.
In the southwest corner of the nation.
This land became known as the Wheat Belt, but it's inland
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location meant the area had limited water.
It was barely arable, the condition that worsened to the
east as the Bush melted into themassive interior desert known as
the Outback. Even so, many as 5000 returning
soldiers accepted the AustralianGovernment's offer and settled
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down in the Wheat Belt to begin their new lives as farmers.
During the 1920s, about 1/3 of the soldiers settlers failed or
just gave up, while those who lasted learn to diversify their
commodities. For example planting wheat while
also raising sheep so that if the price of 1 commodity
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dropped, they could still buoy their finances on the other
until the prices had recovered. In that way, the Australian
farmers protected themselves against downturns in the
fluctuating markets. In 1929, Australian election
results propelled Labour Party leader James Scullin to the post
of Prime Minister. He was sworn into that position
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on October 22nd, 1929, and two days later, before his cabinet
was entirely in place, the Wall Street stock market began to
crash. The resulting Great Depression
caused all commodity prices to plummet worldwide.
Looking forward to the followingyear, Prime Minister Scullin
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encouraged Australian farmers togrow more wheat and in order to
support their plight, he proposed the Wheat Marketing
Bill to the Australian Senate inorder to guarantee the farmers
at a minimum price for their 1930 crop.
Encouraged by the bill in his promises, farmers began
following this advice. However, when the global wheat
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price then plummeted in June of 1930, the Australian Senate
rejected Scullin's bill and the two other attempts to later pass
similar proposals, and Australian farmers, including
the soldier settlers of the wheat belt, faced the prospect
of an enormous financial loss. In an attempt to ride out the
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downturn, Australian farmers stored of most of their wheat,
hoping the price would rebound by harvest time.
It did not, and the farmers finally and begrudgingly
accepted the rock bottom prices rather than let their weight rot
away in the silos. Scullin's gambit had failed and
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the farmers paid the price. In 1931, Prime Minister Scullin
finally passed a fourth attempt at a relief bill through the
Senate, but his efforts were toolate.
In that year's elections, his Labour Party suffered a very
convincing defeat to the United Australia Party, led by the
former Tasmanian Prime Minister Joseph Lyons.
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Lyons, who had previously servedas treasurer under Scullen,
passionately opposed interventionist policies.
Immediately upon accepting the post of Prime Minister, once
more canceled Scullen's relief bill.
Wheat farmers now were sufferinga second disastrous year and
having lost confidence in eitherruling party, forced a shutdown
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with the government by agreeing amongst themselves to refuse to
ship their 1932 harvest until they received fair prices for
their wheat. Simultaneously, an act of bold
defiance and a tremendous financial risk on the part of
the desperate, struggling farmers on the semi arid eastern
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edge of the wheat belt. These soldiers, settlers of the
Campion district, were among those who prepared to make this
drastic statement. The farmers there had invested
heavily in wheat since the stockmarket crashed and farms there
were an average of about 3000 acres in size, about half of
which was cleared for farming and plans were under way to
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build 2 new grain elevators in the central town of Wagalon.
The area was also constantly struggling against pests and
vermin. In the 19th century English
settlers artificially introducednon-native rabbits to Australia
in order for the aristocracy to have familiar hunting targets.
The rabbits being rabbits bred wildly and soon hordes of the
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hopping and munching critters devastated the local crops,
promoting the government to takeaction.
In 19 O 7 construction began on the first of three 3 1/2 foot
tall so-called rabbit proof fences bisecting the country
from north to South and protecting much of the Western
Australian farms from the plagues of rabbits while
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providing A barrier to dingoes and foxes as well.
The fence however, ran just Westof Wagulin and the Campion
district, meaning that soldiers settlers there learn to accept
the animals as a fact of life. They would soon learn, however,
that the rabbits, dingoes, foxesand the rest of the dangers of
whatever was in Australia was not the plague that they needed
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to fear the most. Among the other unusual animals
Australia is home to the emu, the second largest bird in the
world. Behind only the ostrich.
Emus are shaggy, long necked, flightless birds that can stand
as tall as a human and weigh as much as £130, with football
shaped bodies covered in shaggy brown and Gray feathers and
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balanced atop long, powerful legs.
Their Latin name, Dromaus Nova hollandii, roughly translates
now to Australian sprinter, as they can reach over 40 mph in a
dead run while flapping their useless wings for balance.
Emus are also well adapted to living in the arid climate of
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the Outback on account of their ability to survive long
stretches of time without water,although they then drink
extensive amounts when offered the chance.
They generally migrate in the autumn, heading roughly from
northeast to southwest in searchof water, but they are
notoriously unpredictable in thespeed and distance which they
travel, and in the number of birds that will make the journey
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at once. Despite the emu now being a
symbol of the country, its imageappears on the Australian coat
of arms. The government had declared them
pests in 1922 due to the threat they posed to the wheat crop,
and instituted A bounty system for farmers, paying a set amount
for each emu bill received. In 1932, as the farmers daringly
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withheld their wheat crop in protest, an unusually large
migration of about 20,000 emus invaded the approximately 40
square mile area of the Campion district, a density that
averaged to about 500 birds per square mile.
Although emus could and occasionally did step over or
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tear down sections of the fence to the West, the birds largely
save themselves the effort and remained in the area around
Wagalon where there was plenty of weight to eat and water to
drink. The Campion farmers, desperate
to retain their 1932 harvest notonly for income but for leverage
against the government, tried bounty hunting for the emus, but
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sheer numbers overwhelmed their ability to deter or thin the
invading flocks. Some enterprising local boys in
the Waggolin area hopped on their bicycles and tried riding
down the emus, swatting birds inthe head with sticks as they
speed by, reportedly killing as many as 27 in one day.
Farmers also tried hiring a local motorist to attempt the
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same tactic, pursuing the emus in his truck as townspeople
swung clubs while perched on hisrunning boards.
But the vehicle's engines frightened the birds and the
exercise was deemed too costly. The emus persisted and perhaps
became even more weary of humansas a result of the townspeople's
effort. One of the Campion soldier
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settlers by the name of Dixon remembered in his time of
service and floated the idea among his fellows.
Soon thereafter. Some of the local farmers, it's
unclear exactly who, compiled and sent a letter to Sir George
Pierce, Minister of Defense in Perth, and requested the
deployment of modern weapons, specifically machine guns, in
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order to contain the EMU menace.Pierce discussed the prospect
with the Commandant of the 5th Military District, Brigadier AM
Martin, who agreed on the viability of the plan,
mentioning that the exercise could serve as an effective
training for his men against fast moving targets.
One of the two, probably Pierce,also noted the potential
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opportunity for positive propaganda in order to show the
Australian farmers that the Lyons administration was
actively helping in their plight.
The two men consulted the local Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals, who supported the idea as long as
their inspectors could verify that the animals were treated
humanely and not allowed to suffer.
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Pierce saw the plan as both beneficial and practical, so
without notifying his superiors in the distant national capital
of Canberra, he informed the farmers of the Campion district
they would have their assistanceproviding.
The machine guns would be mannedby professional soldiers trained
in their use and the farmers would provide all lodging, food
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and ammunition. The Farmers Agricultural Bank
agreed to front the government for the ammunition to be repaid
out to the farmers future profits and provided A
reassurance towards any damage caused during the operation.
Colonel Hoad of the Australian Light Horse, hearing of the plan
placed an order for 1000 feathered emu skins in order to
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make plumage for his horseman's iconic hats.
The expedition was underway. Brigadier Martin appointed Major
JPW Meredith, Commander of the 7th Heavy Battery in Perth, to
lead the mission in Campion. Major Meredith mobilized 2 of
his machine Gunners, Sergeant McMurray and Gunner O'halloran,
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along with a pair of Lewis lightmachine guns.
The Lewis was in American design, produced in England and
used heavily in World War One. Gas operated but air cooled.
It was used during the war both on the ground and well mounted
on airplanes. It was about half the weight of
the English Vickers machine gun and fired 500 to 600 rounds per
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minute from its single barrel, although the limited size of the
magazine required reloading. After 96 rounds fired, the Lewis
machine guns effective range wasrecorded as 880 yards, although
it's bullets could reach 4 timesthat far with increasingly
diminished accuracy and power. Major Meredith, Sergeant
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McMurray and Gunnar O Houlahan and a Fox Movie Tone cameraman,
whose presence was noted by but not explained to reporters
covering the scene, gathered their required supplies,
equipment, kit and 10,000 roundsof prepaid ammo and stood by to
board the train to take them to the Campion district by early
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October of 1932. And then it rained.
The emus ran away for a month asthe soldiers waited in Perth, as
if that wasn't the biggest omen of what was to come so far.
When the emus returned near the end of the month, the soldiers
boarded a train for Burakopin, the nearest train station near
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Walgulen, where they were met onNovember 2nd by a crowd of
excited farmers. From there, they and their
weapons traveled by truck through most of the rabbit proof
fence towards the Campion district.
While in transit, the men spotted a mob of 40 to 50 emus,
and Meredith decided to begin the operation then and there,
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Noting that the birds were out of range, he asked some of the
locals to circle around the emusin their own vehicles, driving
the birds towards the soldiers and their machine guns.
About 50 enthusiastic farmers did so, embarking upon several
cars in a 20 mile circuit with aplan to herd the emus to a spot
against the fence where the animals would end up being
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trapped and vulnerable to the weapons rapid fire.
However, the emus, smarter than the soldiers or civilians
expected, did not Stampede in a straight line as many other
animals do, but scattered in alldirections when startled.
So when the cars roared towards their position, they split into
small groups and bolted, flapping their tiny wings,
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bodies bobbing this way and thatway while their muscular legs
kicked up dust, swiftly tracing winding patterns through the
scrub that limited agility of the pursuing cars that they
could not hope to follow. The closest of the emus got
within 1000 yards of the guns and although it was beyond their
range, McMurray fired the shots,fell short and missed.
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Meredith asked the locals to repeat the same tactic and again
the caravan of cars with 50 or so local farmers traced its
twenty mile route in attempt to herd the emus toward the guns,
with very similar results. Despite being further away than
before, McMurray opened fire andmanaged to down six of the
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birds. Thus, the first casualties of
the Great Emu War of 1932 were recorded, six birds on day one.
A newspaper reported the resultswith high spirits and Unchained
optimism, saying Major Meredith showed how effective his Lewis
gun was by mowing down half a dozen on the run at a range of
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1400 yards. On the following day, Meredith
ordered that his men set up a base camp about 30 miles north
of Ogulin, with operations concentrated primarily on the
Perry, Joyce and Mcgeorge farms in the area.
Again, the soldiers spotted a herd of emus and, packing into
trucks and accompanied by the nine cars of cheering locals,
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stormed after the birds. They ended up killing nine, but
only after the birds devastated a local farm.
Observers noted that the emus were seeming to quickly learn or
already knew the range limits ofthe machine guns and would
rarely venture with 1000 yards of the men.
Realizing the open warfare was simply ineffective against the
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weary emus, Meredith decided to employ ambushes in order to
surprise the birds at short range.
McMurray and O'halloran therefore set up an ambush site
on a dam overlooking A suitably tempting water source and
waited. After several hours, about 30
emus came within about 800 yards, and the men fired about
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150 rounds. But inspecting the area, they
discovered no bodies. Local farmers informed the
soldiers that in addition to their speed and wariness, their
dense bodies and thick feathers meant that the emus could absorb
damage that would easily kill a regular person.
They had been known to survive even after 5 or 6 direct hits.
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Nevertheless, the locals said, there would be bound to be some
wounded birds that would die later in the Bush.
Surely, they insisted, the soldiers must have scored some
mortal hits. The affected birds just hadn't
realized it yet. Meredith would later record that
quote. The emus resilience is more than
astonishing. It's miraculous.
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If I had a division of men who could carry bullets like that, I
could take on any army in the world.
In the early morning of November4th, O'halleran set up at the
dam again, and at sunrise a herdof about 100 emus headed
straight for them. He opened fire at point blank
range, achieving complete surprise but killing only 12
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before his gun jammed. Meredith had sent away most of
the locals, but some of the few remaining locals fired their
rifles again. The emus scattered into small
groups and zigzagged into the Bush, evading damage.
The soldiers waited for them at the dam for the remainder of the
day, but no more. Emus returned.
With 30 emus now dead, the soldiers with machine guns had
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finally surpassed the day. One body count of stick wielding
local boys on bicycles. Incredible effort by the
military during this time. The Fox movie Tone cameraman was
with the group for at least partof the time.
Footage from the beginning of the operation delivered to the
public. A propaganda reel showing the
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results as spectacular, optimistically proclaiming that
quote, there will be no more damage done here for many a day
to come, UN quote. Still photos of the time were
remarkably generic, usually consisting of a single farmer
displaying a single bird, or of two or three avian bodies
against a fence. Print reporters began
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enthusiastic but became more jaded and sarcastic toward the
operation as the time went by, sometimes attributing human
characteristics to the emus, saying quote the emus had proved
that they are not as stupid as the are usually considered to
be. Each mob has its leader, always
an enormous black plume bird standing fully 6 feet high, who
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keeps watch while his fellows busy themselves with the wheat,
the first suspicious sign. He gives a signal and dozens of
heads stretch out of the crop. A few birds might take fright,
starting a headlong Stampede forthe scrub, the leader always
remaining until his followers had reached safely.
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For the next few days, Meredith pursued rumors of a relatively
large, tame flock of emus South of their position, but with
little more success. At one point they mounted one of
their Lewis guns on the back of a flatbed truck and chased emus
through the paddock at over 30 miles an hour.
Gunnar o'halloran, clinging desperately to the back of the
wildly bucking truck as it speedover uneven terrain, could not
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manage to discharge even a single shot.
At one point, a local farmer simply tried running an emu
down, but the doomed bird managed to entangle its corpse
in the steering gear so that thetruck ran fully off the road,
excavating a large piece of the fence before finally coming to a
stop. By November 8th, the men had
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used about 1/4 of their allottedammunition in pursuit of the
birds. Reporters estimated that the men
had killed approximately 200 emus, which was likely a
generous number. Meredith insisted on 300, and
the locals bragged about 500. But even assuming the highest
number, the operation accounted for a 40th of the emu migration
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so far, and in the process the panicking birds managed to
Stampede much of the remaining wheat into dust.
Meredith, taking stock of the situation, praised the bird's
speed and resilience, remarked to a local that an expansion of
the operation would be justified, and helpfully pointed
out to a reporter, or that, on the bright side, the mission had
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not suffered a single human casualty.
Imagine that you're fighting a guerrilla war against birds and
losing. But on the bright side, no one
got impact. Meanwhile, word had reached
Canberra on the operations against the emus, and reporters
asked Prime Minister Lyons for his views on the subject.
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Lyons, taken aback, promised to get answers soon.
Other M PS soon criticized the hunt, often equating its
ridiculousness with the Lyons administration.
Harold Thornby, MP for Claire inNSW, called it a farce and after
a Labour politician asked if there would be medals, a Western
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Australian MP replied that if there were, they should go to
the emus. As the issue blossomed into a
potential embarrassment, defenseauthorities, reluctant to set
precedent, ordered Meredith thathe and his machine guns withdraw
from Campion by November 9th. Martin immediately relay the
orders to Meredith, who after visiting two more paddocks,
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including farmer Dixon's, and scouting another 30 miles of
fence, dismissed reports of another major flock in the area
and followed his orders by ultimately departing the Campion
district Later that day. The Perth Daily News reported on
the withdrawal saying, quote, noTreaty of peace had been
concluded and the emus remain inpossession of disputed
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territory. It is therefore expected that
regular military operations willbe followed by guerrilla
warfare, which may continue for years and may be accompanied by
stories of horrible atrocities. The EMU commander is maintaining
A studied silence to his future plans, but it is understood that
he is much impressed with the capacity for resilience shown by
raw troops and confident that they will continue to uphold the
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best traditions of the race. He is credited with the
intention to arrange for a suitable poem to commemorate the
EMU glory on the field of Campion.
This also just shows the human side of all this ridiculousness,
the emus for gaining traction with the locals in Australia,
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Even so much that EMU Command, as they called it, was gaining
support. The farmers immediately
expressed their outrage at the withdrawal and pleaded for the
return of the gunning crew. Pierce, still in Perth, received
a desperate telegram that read quote, Gunners withdrawn,
imperative that they should stay.
Emus beginning reappear in largenumbers.
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Can you do anything? Why are we immediately Dixon,
The Great Southern Leader newspaper reported on November
11th that quote experience was just beginning to reach a point
where results could be expected.WA Premier Sir James Mitchell,
although a member of the Prime Minister's own party, also
demanded that the party return to Campion, inflating the amount
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of damage caused in an effort togarner support.
Ironically, and possibly unintentionally, he cited
massive damage inflicted on the Perry, Joyce and Mcgeorge farms,
although much of that damage waslikely caused by the guns
themselves or the throng of accompanying cars and trucks.
This local pressure caused Pierce to attempt to sway
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Canberra to allow Meredith's mento redeploy, but the Lyons
administration literally did notreturn his calls.
Left to his own devices, Pierce quoted reports that further
inland, drought was causing evenmore emus to flock to farmland,
and that the birds were knockingdown significant portions of the
fence and letting in rabbits. Pierce decided that he could
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technically adhere to his ordersby lending the machine guns to
the Western Australian State government rather than deploying
them himself. And since Western Australian
State government had no qualified Gunners, he also lent
them Meredith, McMurray and O'halloran.
The letter of the law and chain of command thereby satisfied,
the same force of three men onceagain boarded the train for
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Burakoppin and then to the Campion district, arriving at
the Joyce farm for a second timeon November 13th.
The 2nd sojourn in the Campion district did not fare much
better than the first. On the day of their arrival, the
Gunners set an ambush, but miss estimated the range and by the
time they had change barrels to compensate, the emus once again
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scattered in their typical chaotic pattern and the two men
killed only twenty birds. On November 15th, the men tried
switching to rifles and stalkingthe birds to no avail.
They then tried splitting their force of three, deploying
O'halloran to the north as McMurray and Meredith headed
South towards Wagholan. The latter 2 drove a herd of
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emus back toward and right over and overwhelmed O'halloran's
position. The animal welfare officer who
accompanied the men admitted that he had little to do due to
the birds ability to continue tooperate so well even after being
grievously wounded. At some point, someone left a
gate and the rabbit proof fence open, allowing a good number of
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rabbits and emus alike to push into the supposedly protected
interior before the gate was closed again.
Pierce continued to defend the use of the machine guns, saying
that he had at first thought that only a few had been killed,
but later learned that the number was in the hundreds.
By December 2nd, Meredith estimated that the men killed
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about 15 birds a day, and the expensive and embarrassing
operation was finally recalled the second and final time on
December 10th, 1932. In his final report, Meredith
claimed that of the 9860 rounds expended, the suspiciously easy
to visible number of 986 birds had been killed.
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He also added that an additional2500 had later succumbed to
their wounds, A calculation for which he provided no
methodology. On December 13th, the farmers of
the Campion district, further demoralized and disappointed by
the campaign, finally agreed to load and sell their wheat.
The Agricultural Bank delayed charging the still struggling
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farmers for the cost of the ammunition as long as its
executors could justify, and when they finally asked for
reimbursement, the locals steadfastly refused to pay. 1
soldier settler by the name of Daniel J O'Leary stated that in
a letter to the government actually owed him money to
compensate for the time that he had spent killing wounded emus
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and for food, transport and damaged caused by cars bearing
around the overweight soldiers. In his letter he referred to the
mission commander as major murderers.
The Emu War had been a massive public relations debacle.
Wheat belt farmers continue to request machine gun crews in
19341938 and 1943 as more Australian farms failed in the
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latter of those requests. 1 Petitioner suggests that the
Australian military would be certain to have great effect
against emus if, rather than machine guns, they began instead
of bombing emu flocks from the air.
Eventually the government reinstituted the bounty system
and between the years of 1945 and 1960 local farmers claim
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bounties on over 284,000 emus. Today the International Union
for Conservation of Nature ratesthe EMU as quote Least Concern.
There are now more emus in Australia than there were when
Europeans first landed. So what did we learn from the
Great Emu War? Well, we learned the plight of
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struggling veterans, the failureof economic policy, nature's
unpredictability, and the arrogance of military overreach.
So if you don't get anything else from this episode of Naked
History, it's that you should never start a land war in WA
against a bird that can run 30 miles an hour.
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And that has been this episode of Naked History.
I'm Dylan Gasway and thank you for joining me for this
feathered fiasco. If you enjoy today's episode,
feel free to follow or subscribeand share this with one of your
friends who thinks that they could take an immuno fight or a
kangaroo or really anything thatAustralia has.
They could kill you instantly. Next week on Naked History
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Debrief we're going to be takinga behind the scenes look at the
Great Emu War of 1932, includingsome of the footage that may
have been lost a time, the camelpatrols that were suggested by
the farmers, and a few emu factsthat even I didn't believe
whenever I first read them. Until then, stay curious, stay
(30:13):
weird, and if a bird gives you attitude, maybe just walk away.
Thank you again for listening and I'll see you in the next
one. Have a good one.
Imagine this. You're a war veteran, a survivor
of Gallipoli, standing under thebrutal Western Australian sun in
1932. You've traded your trenches for
wheat fields, you're broke and your land is barely usable.
And now you're holding a Lewis machine gun.
Why? Because a six foot tall bird
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just stared you down and dared you to shoot first.
Welcome to Naked History, where we RIP off the fig leaf off the
past reveal the absurd, the extraordinary and the utterly
feather brained. I'm your host, Dylan Gasaway,
and today we're diving into a moment so surreal it sounds like
a Monty Python sketch crossed with a military after action
(00:43):
report. The Great Australian Emu War.
Yes, it really happened. Yes, they did use machine guns.
And yes, the birds won. Let's get into it, shall we?
(01:17):
Between 1914 and 1918, Australiadispatched more than 330,000
soldiers overseas to fight in the Great War, now known as
World War One. After the 1918 Armistice ended
the fighting, the Australian government instituted a program
to provide free farming land to its returning soldiers in order
(01:38):
to reintroduce them back into civilian life.
In WA, the government established 48 farming estates
totaling almost 90,000 hectacres, or just a little over
200,000 acres in the area northeast of Perth.
In the southwest corner of the nation.
This land became known as the Wheat Belt, but it's inland
(02:01):
location meant the area had limited water.
It was barely arable, the condition that worsened to the
east as the Bush melted into themassive interior desert known as
the Outback. Even so, many as 5000 returning
soldiers accepted the AustralianGovernment's offer and settled
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down in the Wheat Belt to begin their new lives as farmers.
During the 1920s, about 1/3 of the soldiers settlers failed or
just gave up, while those who lasted learn to diversify their
commodities. For example planting wheat while
also raising sheep so that if the price of 1 commodity
(02:42):
dropped, they could still buoy their finances on the other
until the prices had recovered. In that way, the Australian
farmers protected themselves against downturns in the
fluctuating markets. In 1929, Australian election
results propelled Labour Party leader James Scullin to the post
of Prime Minister. He was sworn into that position
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on October 22nd, 1929, and two days later, before his cabinet
was entirely in place, the Wall Street stock market began to
crash. The resulting Great Depression
caused all commodity prices to plummet worldwide.
Looking forward to the followingyear, Prime Minister Scullin
(03:25):
encouraged Australian farmers togrow more wheat and in order to
support their plight, he proposed the Wheat Marketing
Bill to the Australian Senate inorder to guarantee the farmers
at a minimum price for their 1930 crop.
Encouraged by the bill in his promises, farmers began
following this advice. However, when the global wheat
(03:46):
price then plummeted in June of 1930, the Australian Senate
rejected Scullin's bill and the two other attempts to later pass
similar proposals, and Australian farmers, including
the soldier settlers of the wheat belt, faced the prospect
of an enormous financial loss. In an attempt to ride out the
(04:06):
downturn, Australian farmers stored of most of their wheat,
hoping the price would rebound by harvest time.
It did not, and the farmers finally and begrudgingly
accepted the rock bottom prices rather than let their weight rot
away in the silos. Scullin's gambit had failed and
(04:26):
the farmers paid the price. In 1931, Prime Minister Scullin
finally passed a fourth attempt at a relief bill through the
Senate, but his efforts were toolate.
In that year's elections, his Labour Party suffered a very
convincing defeat to the United Australia Party, led by the
former Tasmanian Prime Minister Joseph Lyons.
(04:49):
Lyons, who had previously servedas treasurer under Scullen,
passionately opposed interventionist policies.
Immediately upon accepting the post of Prime Minister, once
more canceled Scullen's relief bill.
Wheat farmers now were sufferinga second disastrous year and
having lost confidence in eitherruling party, forced a shutdown
(05:11):
with the government by agreeing amongst themselves to refuse to
ship their 1932 harvest until they received fair prices for
their wheat. Simultaneously, an act of bold
defiance and a tremendous financial risk on the part of
the desperate, struggling farmers on the semi arid eastern
(05:33):
edge of the wheat belt. These soldiers, settlers of the
Campion district, were among those who prepared to make this
drastic statement. The farmers there had invested
heavily in wheat since the stockmarket crashed and farms there
were an average of about 3000 acres in size, about half of
which was cleared for farming and plans were under way to
(05:54):
build 2 new grain elevators in the central town of Wagalon.
The area was also constantly struggling against pests and
vermin. In the 19th century English
settlers artificially introducednon-native rabbits to Australia
in order for the aristocracy to have familiar hunting targets.
The rabbits being rabbits bred wildly and soon hordes of the
(06:18):
hopping and munching critters devastated the local crops,
promoting the government to takeaction.
In 19 O 7 construction began on the first of three 3 1/2 foot
tall so-called rabbit proof fences bisecting the country
from north to South and protecting much of the Western
Australian farms from the plagues of rabbits while
(06:41):
providing A barrier to dingoes and foxes as well.
The fence however, ran just Westof Wagulin and the Campion
district, meaning that soldiers settlers there learn to accept
the animals as a fact of life. They would soon learn, however,
that the rabbits, dingoes, foxesand the rest of the dangers of
whatever was in Australia was not the plague that they needed
(07:05):
to fear the most. Among the other unusual animals
Australia is home to the emu, the second largest bird in the
world. Behind only the ostrich.
Emus are shaggy, long necked, flightless birds that can stand
as tall as a human and weigh as much as £130, with football
shaped bodies covered in shaggy brown and Gray feathers and
(07:28):
balanced atop long, powerful legs.
Their Latin name, Dromaus Nova hollandii, roughly translates
now to Australian sprinter, as they can reach over 40 mph in a
dead run while flapping their useless wings for balance.
Emus are also well adapted to living in the arid climate of
(07:51):
the Outback on account of their ability to survive long
stretches of time without water,although they then drink
extensive amounts when offered the chance.
They generally migrate in the autumn, heading roughly from
northeast to southwest in searchof water, but they are
notoriously unpredictable in thespeed and distance which they
travel, and in the number of birds that will make the journey
(08:14):
at once. Despite the emu now being a
symbol of the country, its imageappears on the Australian coat
of arms. The government had declared them
pests in 1922 due to the threat they posed to the wheat crop,
and instituted A bounty system for farmers, paying a set amount
for each emu bill received. In 1932, as the farmers daringly
(08:38):
withheld their wheat crop in protest, an unusually large
migration of about 20,000 emus invaded the approximately 40
square mile area of the Campion district, a density that
averaged to about 500 birds per square mile.
Although emus could and occasionally did step over or
(08:59):
tear down sections of the fence to the West, the birds largely
save themselves the effort and remained in the area around
Wagalon where there was plenty of weight to eat and water to
drink. The Campion farmers, desperate
to retain their 1932 harvest notonly for income but for leverage
against the government, tried bounty hunting for the emus, but
(09:22):
sheer numbers overwhelmed their ability to deter or thin the
invading flocks. Some enterprising local boys in
the Waggolin area hopped on their bicycles and tried riding
down the emus, swatting birds inthe head with sticks as they
speed by, reportedly killing as many as 27 in one day.
Farmers also tried hiring a local motorist to attempt the
(09:44):
same tactic, pursuing the emus in his truck as townspeople
swung clubs while perched on hisrunning boards.
But the vehicle's engines frightened the birds and the
exercise was deemed too costly. The emus persisted and perhaps
became even more weary of humansas a result of the townspeople's
effort. One of the Campion soldier
(10:06):
settlers by the name of Dixon remembered in his time of
service and floated the idea among his fellows.
Soon thereafter. Some of the local farmers, it's
unclear exactly who, compiled and sent a letter to Sir George
Pierce, Minister of Defense in Perth, and requested the
deployment of modern weapons, specifically machine guns, in
(10:27):
order to contain the EMU menace.Pierce discussed the prospect
with the Commandant of the 5th Military District, Brigadier AM
Martin, who agreed on the viability of the plan,
mentioning that the exercise could serve as an effective
training for his men against fast moving targets.
One of the two, probably Pierce,also noted the potential
(10:49):
opportunity for positive propaganda in order to show the
Australian farmers that the Lyons administration was
actively helping in their plight.
The two men consulted the local Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals, who supported the idea as long as
their inspectors could verify that the animals were treated
humanely and not allowed to suffer.
(11:10):
Pierce saw the plan as both beneficial and practical, so
without notifying his superiors in the distant national capital
of Canberra, he informed the farmers of the Campion district
they would have their assistanceproviding.
The machine guns would be mannedby professional soldiers trained
in their use and the farmers would provide all lodging, food
(11:30):
and ammunition. The Farmers Agricultural Bank
agreed to front the government for the ammunition to be repaid
out to the farmers future profits and provided A
reassurance towards any damage caused during the operation.
Colonel Hoad of the Australian Light Horse, hearing of the plan
placed an order for 1000 feathered emu skins in order to
(11:52):
make plumage for his horseman's iconic hats.
The expedition was underway. Brigadier Martin appointed Major
JPW Meredith, Commander of the 7th Heavy Battery in Perth, to
lead the mission in Campion. Major Meredith mobilized 2 of
his machine Gunners, Sergeant McMurray and Gunner O'halloran,
(12:13):
along with a pair of Lewis lightmachine guns.
The Lewis was in American design, produced in England and
used heavily in World War One. Gas operated but air cooled.
It was used during the war both on the ground and well mounted
on airplanes. It was about half the weight of
the English Vickers machine gun and fired 500 to 600 rounds per
(12:34):
minute from its single barrel, although the limited size of the
magazine required reloading. After 96 rounds fired, the Lewis
machine guns effective range wasrecorded as 880 yards, although
it's bullets could reach 4 timesthat far with increasingly
diminished accuracy and power. Major Meredith, Sergeant
(12:55):
McMurray and Gunnar O Houlahan and a Fox Movie Tone cameraman,
whose presence was noted by but not explained to reporters
covering the scene, gathered their required supplies,
equipment, kit and 10,000 roundsof prepaid ammo and stood by to
board the train to take them to the Campion district by early
(13:15):
October of 1932. And then it rained.
The emus ran away for a month asthe soldiers waited in Perth, as
if that wasn't the biggest omen of what was to come so far.
When the emus returned near the end of the month, the soldiers
boarded a train for Burakopin, the nearest train station near
(13:38):
Walgulen, where they were met onNovember 2nd by a crowd of
excited farmers. From there, they and their
weapons traveled by truck through most of the rabbit proof
fence towards the Campion district.
While in transit, the men spotted a mob of 40 to 50 emus,
and Meredith decided to begin the operation then and there,
(14:00):
Noting that the birds were out of range, he asked some of the
locals to circle around the emusin their own vehicles, driving
the birds towards the soldiers and their machine guns.
About 50 enthusiastic farmers did so, embarking upon several
cars in a 20 mile circuit with aplan to herd the emus to a spot
against the fence where the animals would end up being
(14:21):
trapped and vulnerable to the weapons rapid fire.
However, the emus, smarter than the soldiers or civilians
expected, did not Stampede in a straight line as many other
animals do, but scattered in alldirections when startled.
So when the cars roared towards their position, they split into
small groups and bolted, flapping their tiny wings,
(14:43):
bodies bobbing this way and thatway while their muscular legs
kicked up dust, swiftly tracing winding patterns through the
scrub that limited agility of the pursuing cars that they
could not hope to follow. The closest of the emus got
within 1000 yards of the guns and although it was beyond their
range, McMurray fired the shots,fell short and missed.
(15:08):
Meredith asked the locals to repeat the same tactic and again
the caravan of cars with 50 or so local farmers traced its
twenty mile route in attempt to herd the emus toward the guns,
with very similar results. Despite being further away than
before, McMurray opened fire andmanaged to down six of the
(15:28):
birds. Thus, the first casualties of
the Great Emu War of 1932 were recorded, six birds on day one.
A newspaper reported the resultswith high spirits and Unchained
optimism, saying Major Meredith showed how effective his Lewis
gun was by mowing down half a dozen on the run at a range of
(15:49):
1400 yards. On the following day, Meredith
ordered that his men set up a base camp about 30 miles north
of Ogulin, with operations concentrated primarily on the
Perry, Joyce and Mcgeorge farms in the area.
Again, the soldiers spotted a herd of emus and, packing into
trucks and accompanied by the nine cars of cheering locals,
(16:12):
stormed after the birds. They ended up killing nine, but
only after the birds devastated a local farm.
Observers noted that the emus were seeming to quickly learn or
already knew the range limits ofthe machine guns and would
rarely venture with 1000 yards of the men.
Realizing the open warfare was simply ineffective against the
(16:34):
weary emus, Meredith decided to employ ambushes in order to
surprise the birds at short range.
McMurray and O'halloran therefore set up an ambush site
on a dam overlooking A suitably tempting water source and
waited. After several hours, about 30
emus came within about 800 yards, and the men fired about
(16:54):
150 rounds. But inspecting the area, they
discovered no bodies. Local farmers informed the
soldiers that in addition to their speed and wariness, their
dense bodies and thick feathers meant that the emus could absorb
damage that would easily kill a regular person.
They had been known to survive even after 5 or 6 direct hits.
(17:17):
Nevertheless, the locals said, there would be bound to be some
wounded birds that would die later in the Bush.
Surely, they insisted, the soldiers must have scored some
mortal hits. The affected birds just hadn't
realized it yet. Meredith would later record that
quote. The emus resilience is more than
astonishing. It's miraculous.
(17:38):
If I had a division of men who could carry bullets like that, I
could take on any army in the world.
In the early morning of November4th, O'halleran set up at the
dam again, and at sunrise a herdof about 100 emus headed
straight for them. He opened fire at point blank
range, achieving complete surprise but killing only 12
(18:00):
before his gun jammed. Meredith had sent away most of
the locals, but some of the few remaining locals fired their
rifles again. The emus scattered into small
groups and zigzagged into the Bush, evading damage.
The soldiers waited for them at the dam for the remainder of the
day, but no more. Emus returned.
With 30 emus now dead, the soldiers with machine guns had
(18:24):
finally surpassed the day. One body count of stick wielding
local boys on bicycles. Incredible effort by the
military during this time. The Fox movie Tone cameraman was
with the group for at least partof the time.
Footage from the beginning of the operation delivered to the
public. A propaganda reel showing the
(18:45):
results as spectacular, optimistically proclaiming that
quote, there will be no more damage done here for many a day
to come, UN quote. Still photos of the time were
remarkably generic, usually consisting of a single farmer
displaying a single bird, or of two or three avian bodies
against a fence. Print reporters began
(19:07):
enthusiastic but became more jaded and sarcastic toward the
operation as the time went by, sometimes attributing human
characteristics to the emus, saying quote the emus had proved
that they are not as stupid as the are usually considered to
be. Each mob has its leader, always
an enormous black plume bird standing fully 6 feet high, who
(19:30):
keeps watch while his fellows busy themselves with the wheat,
the first suspicious sign. He gives a signal and dozens of
heads stretch out of the crop. A few birds might take fright,
starting a headlong Stampede forthe scrub, the leader always
remaining until his followers had reached safely.
(19:51):
For the next few days, Meredith pursued rumors of a relatively
large, tame flock of emus South of their position, but with
little more success. At one point they mounted one of
their Lewis guns on the back of a flatbed truck and chased emus
through the paddock at over 30 miles an hour.
Gunnar o'halloran, clinging desperately to the back of the
wildly bucking truck as it speedover uneven terrain, could not
(20:15):
manage to discharge even a single shot.
At one point, a local farmer simply tried running an emu
down, but the doomed bird managed to entangle its corpse
in the steering gear so that thetruck ran fully off the road,
excavating a large piece of the fence before finally coming to a
stop. By November 8th, the men had
(20:35):
used about 1/4 of their allottedammunition in pursuit of the
birds. Reporters estimated that the men
had killed approximately 200 emus, which was likely a
generous number. Meredith insisted on 300, and
the locals bragged about 500. But even assuming the highest
number, the operation accounted for a 40th of the emu migration
(20:57):
so far, and in the process the panicking birds managed to
Stampede much of the remaining wheat into dust.
Meredith, taking stock of the situation, praised the bird's
speed and resilience, remarked to a local that an expansion of
the operation would be justified, and helpfully pointed
out to a reporter, or that, on the bright side, the mission had
(21:19):
not suffered a single human casualty.
Imagine that you're fighting a guerrilla war against birds and
losing. But on the bright side, no one
got impact. Meanwhile, word had reached
Canberra on the operations against the emus, and reporters
asked Prime Minister Lyons for his views on the subject.
(21:41):
Lyons, taken aback, promised to get answers soon.
Other M PS soon criticized the hunt, often equating its
ridiculousness with the Lyons administration.
Harold Thornby, MP for Claire inNSW, called it a farce and after
a Labour politician asked if there would be medals, a Western
(22:01):
Australian MP replied that if there were, they should go to
the emus. As the issue blossomed into a
potential embarrassment, defenseauthorities, reluctant to set
precedent, ordered Meredith thathe and his machine guns withdraw
from Campion by November 9th. Martin immediately relay the
orders to Meredith, who after visiting two more paddocks,
(22:23):
including farmer Dixon's, and scouting another 30 miles of
fence, dismissed reports of another major flock in the area
and followed his orders by ultimately departing the Campion
district Later that day. The Perth Daily News reported on
the withdrawal saying, quote, noTreaty of peace had been
concluded and the emus remain inpossession of disputed
(22:45):
territory. It is therefore expected that
regular military operations willbe followed by guerrilla
warfare, which may continue for years and may be accompanied by
stories of horrible atrocities. The EMU commander is maintaining
A studied silence to his future plans, but it is understood that
he is much impressed with the capacity for resilience shown by
raw troops and confident that they will continue to uphold the
(23:09):
best traditions of the race. He is credited with the
intention to arrange for a suitable poem to commemorate the
EMU glory on the field of Campion.
This also just shows the human side of all this ridiculousness,
the emus for gaining traction with the locals in Australia,
(23:30):
Even so much that EMU Command, as they called it, was gaining
support. The farmers immediately
expressed their outrage at the withdrawal and pleaded for the
return of the gunning crew. Pierce, still in Perth, received
a desperate telegram that read quote, Gunners withdrawn,
imperative that they should stay.
Emus beginning reappear in largenumbers.
(23:53):
Can you do anything? Why are we immediately Dixon,
The Great Southern Leader newspaper reported on November
11th that quote experience was just beginning to reach a point
where results could be expected.WA Premier Sir James Mitchell,
although a member of the Prime Minister's own party, also
demanded that the party return to Campion, inflating the amount
(24:15):
of damage caused in an effort togarner support.
Ironically, and possibly unintentionally, he cited
massive damage inflicted on the Perry, Joyce and Mcgeorge farms,
although much of that damage waslikely caused by the guns
themselves or the throng of accompanying cars and trucks.
This local pressure caused Pierce to attempt to sway
(24:37):
Canberra to allow Meredith's mento redeploy, but the Lyons
administration literally did notreturn his calls.
Left to his own devices, Pierce quoted reports that further
inland, drought was causing evenmore emus to flock to farmland,
and that the birds were knockingdown significant portions of the
fence and letting in rabbits. Pierce decided that he could
(25:01):
technically adhere to his ordersby lending the machine guns to
the Western Australian State government rather than deploying
them himself. And since Western Australian
State government had no qualified Gunners, he also lent
them Meredith, McMurray and O'halloran.
The letter of the law and chain of command thereby satisfied,
the same force of three men onceagain boarded the train for
(25:23):
Burakoppin and then to the Campion district, arriving at
the Joyce farm for a second timeon November 13th.
The 2nd sojourn in the Campion district did not fare much
better than the first. On the day of their arrival, the
Gunners set an ambush, but miss estimated the range and by the
time they had change barrels to compensate, the emus once again
(25:44):
scattered in their typical chaotic pattern and the two men
killed only twenty birds. On November 15th, the men tried
switching to rifles and stalkingthe birds to no avail.
They then tried splitting their force of three, deploying
O'halloran to the north as McMurray and Meredith headed
South towards Wagholan. The latter 2 drove a herd of
(26:08):
emus back toward and right over and overwhelmed O'halloran's
position. The animal welfare officer who
accompanied the men admitted that he had little to do due to
the birds ability to continue tooperate so well even after being
grievously wounded. At some point, someone left a
gate and the rabbit proof fence open, allowing a good number of
(26:29):
rabbits and emus alike to push into the supposedly protected
interior before the gate was closed again.
Pierce continued to defend the use of the machine guns, saying
that he had at first thought that only a few had been killed,
but later learned that the number was in the hundreds.
By December 2nd, Meredith estimated that the men killed
(26:50):
about 15 birds a day, and the expensive and embarrassing
operation was finally recalled the second and final time on
December 10th, 1932. In his final report, Meredith
claimed that of the 9860 rounds expended, the suspiciously easy
to visible number of 986 birds had been killed.
(27:12):
He also added that an additional2500 had later succumbed to
their wounds, A calculation for which he provided no
methodology. On December 13th, the farmers of
the Campion district, further demoralized and disappointed by
the campaign, finally agreed to load and sell their wheat.
The Agricultural Bank delayed charging the still struggling
(27:35):
farmers for the cost of the ammunition as long as its
executors could justify, and when they finally asked for
reimbursement, the locals steadfastly refused to pay. 1
soldier settler by the name of Daniel J O'Leary stated that in
a letter to the government actually owed him money to
compensate for the time that he had spent killing wounded emus
(27:56):
and for food, transport and damaged caused by cars bearing
around the overweight soldiers. In his letter he referred to the
mission commander as major murderers.
The Emu War had been a massive public relations debacle.
Wheat belt farmers continue to request machine gun crews in
19341938 and 1943 as more Australian farms failed in the
(28:22):
latter of those requests. 1 Petitioner suggests that the
Australian military would be certain to have great effect
against emus if, rather than machine guns, they began instead
of bombing emu flocks from the air.
Eventually the government reinstituted the bounty system
and between the years of 1945 and 1960 local farmers claim
(28:43):
bounties on over 284,000 emus. Today the International Union
for Conservation of Nature ratesthe EMU as quote Least Concern.
There are now more emus in Australia than there were when
Europeans first landed. So what did we learn from the
Great Emu War? Well, we learned the plight of
(29:05):
struggling veterans, the failureof economic policy, nature's
unpredictability, and the arrogance of military overreach.
So if you don't get anything else from this episode of Naked
History, it's that you should never start a land war in WA
against a bird that can run 30 miles an hour.
(29:29):
And that has been this episode of Naked History.
I'm Dylan Gasway and thank you for joining me for this
feathered fiasco. If you enjoy today's episode,
feel free to follow or subscribeand share this with one of your
friends who thinks that they could take an immuno fight or a
kangaroo or really anything thatAustralia has.
They could kill you instantly. Next week on Naked History
(29:53):
Debrief we're going to be takinga behind the scenes look at the
Great Emu War of 1932, includingsome of the footage that may
have been lost a time, the camelpatrols that were suggested by
the farmers, and a few emu factsthat even I didn't believe
whenever I first read them. Until then, stay curious, stay
(30:13):
weird, and if a bird gives you attitude, maybe just walk away.
Thank you again for listening and I'll see you in the next
one. Have a good one.
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