Emu War

The Emu War, also known as the Great Emu War,[1] was a nuisance wildlife
Emu War
management military operation undertaken in Australia over the latter part of 1932
to address public concern over the number of emus said to be running amok in the
Campion district of Western Australia. The unsuccessful attempts to curb the
population of emus, a large flightless bird indigenous to Australia, employed
soldiers armed with Lewis guns—leading the media to adopt the name "Emu War"
when referring to the incident. While a number of the birds were killed, the emu
population persisted and continued to cause crop destruction.

Contents
Background
The "War"
First attempt
Second attempt
A man holding an emu killed by
Aftermath
Australian soldiers
See also
References
Date 2 November – 10
December 1932
External links
Location Campion district,
Western Australia
Background Also known Great Emu War
as
Following World War I, large
numbers of ex-soldiers from Participants Emus
Australia, along with a number of Sir George Pearce
British veterans, were given land Major G.P.W. Meredith
by the Australian government to Royal Australian
take up farming within Western Artillery
Australia, often in marginal Outcome Failure. Emu population
areas. With the onset of the Great persists. See Aftermath
Fallow caused by emus
Depression in 1929, these
farmers were encouraged to increase their wheat crops, with the government
promising—and failing to deliver—assistance in the form of subsidies. In spite of the recommendations and the promised subsidies,
wheat prices continued to fall, and by October 1932 matters were becoming intense, with the farmers preparing to harvest the
[2]
season's crop while simultaneously threatening to refuse to deliver the wheat.

The difficulties facing farmers were increased by the arrival of as many as 20,000 emus.[3] Emus regularly migrate after their
breeding season, heading to the coast from the inland regions. With the cleared land and additional water supplies being made
available for livestock by the West Australian farmers, the emus found that the cultivated lands were good habitat, and they began to
foray into farm territory—in particular the marginal farming land around Chandler and Walgoolan.[2] The emus consumed and
spoiled the crops, as well as leaving large gaps in fences where rabbits could enter and cause further problems.[4]
Farmers relayed their concerns about the birds ravaging their crops, and a deputation of ex-soldiers were sent to meet with the
Minister of Defence, Sir George Pearce. Having served in World War I, the soldier-settlers were well aware of the effectiveness of
machine guns, and they requested their deployment. The minister readily agreed, although with conditions attached: the guns were to
be used by military personnel, and troop transport was to be financed by the Western Australian government, and the farmers would
provide food, accommodation, and payment for the ammunition.[2][5] Pearce also supported the deployment on the grounds that the
birds would make good target practice,[6] although it has also been argued that some in the government may have viewed this as a
way of being seen to be helping the Western Australian farmers, and towards that end a cinematographer from Fox Movietone was
enlisted.[2]

The "War"
Military involvement was due to begin in October 1932.[5] The 'war' was conducted
under the command of Major G.P.W. Meredith of the Seventh Heavy Battery of the
Royal Australian Artillery,[2][6] with Meredith commanding soldiers Sergeant S.
McMurray and Gunner J. O'Hallora,[8] armed with two Lewis guns[9] and 10,000
rounds of ammunition.[6] The operation was delayed, however, by a period of
rainfall that caused the emus to scatter over a wider area.[5] The rain ceased by 2
November 1932,[2][5] at which point the troops were deployed with orders to assist
the farmers and, according to a newspaper account, to collect 100 emu skins so that
their feathers could be used to make hats forlight horsemen.[10]

First attempt
On 2 November the men travelled toCampion, where some 50 emus were sighted.[2]
As the birds were out of range of the guns, the local settlers attempted to herd the
emus into an ambush, but the birds split into small groups and ran so that they were
difficult to target.[6] Nevertheless, while the first fusillade from the machine guns
Sir George Pearce, who ordered that
was ineffective due to the range, a second round of gunfire was able to kill "a the army cull the emu population. He
number" of birds. Later the same day a small flock was encountered, and "perhaps a was later referred to in Parliament as
dozen" birds were killed.[2] the "Minister of the Emu War" by
Senator James Dunn.[7]
The next significant event was on 4 November. Meredith had established an ambush
near a local dam, and more than 1,000 emus were spotted heading towards their
position. This time the gunners waited until the birds were in close proximity before opening fire. The gun jammed after only twelve
[8] No more birds were sighted that day
birds were killed and the remainder scattered before any more could be shot. .[2]

In the days that followed, Meredith chose to move further south, where the birds were "reported to be fairly tame",[11] but there was
only limited success in spite of his efforts.[2] By the fourth day of the campaign, army observers noted that "each pack seems to have
its own 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."[12] At one stage Meredith even went so far as to mount one of the guns on a truck: a
move that proved to be ineffective, as the truck was unable to gain on the birds, and the ride was so rough that the gunner was unable
to fire any shots.[2] By 8 November, six days after the first engagement, 2,500 rounds of ammunition had been fired.[6] The number
of birds killed is uncertain: one account estimates that it was 50 birds,[6] but other accounts range from 200 to 500—the latter figure
being provided by the settlers. Meredith's official report noted that his men had suffered no casualties.[2]

Summarising the culls, ornithologistDominic Serventy commented:

The machine-gunners' dreams of point blank fire into serried masses of Emus were soon dissipated. The Emu
command had evidently ordered guerrilla tactics, and its unwieldy army soon split up into innumerable small units
that made use of the military equipment uneconomic. A crestfallen field force therefore withdrew from the combat
area after about a month.[13]
On 8 November, representatives in the Australian House of Representatives discussed the operation.[6] Following the negative
coverage of the events in the local media,[14] that included claims that "only a few" emus had died,[4] Pearce withdrew the military
personnel and the guns on 8 November.[4][6][15][16]

After the withdrawal, Major Meredith compared the emus toZulus and commented on the striking manoeuvrability of the emus, even
while badly wounded.

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. They are like Zulus whom even dum-dum bullets could
not stop.[12]

Second attempt
After the withdrawal of the military, the emu attacks on crops continued. Farmers again asked for support, citing the hot weather and
drought that brought emus invading farms in the thousands. James Mitchell, the Premier of Western Australia lent his strong support
to renewal of the military assistance. At the same time, a report from the Base Commander was issued that indicated 300 emus had
been killed in the initial operation.[16]

Acting on the requests and the Base Commander's report, by 12 November the Minister of Defence approved a resumption of
military efforts.[16] He defended the decision in the senate, explaining why the soldiers were necessary to combat the serious
agricultural threat of the large emu population.[4] Although the military had agreed to lend the guns to the Western Australian
government on the expectation that they would provide the necessary people, Meredith was once again placed in the field due to an
[2]
apparent lack of experienced machine gunners in the state.

Taking to the field on 13 November 1932, the military found a degree of success over the first two days, with approximately 40 emus
killed. The third day, 15 November, proved to be far less successful, but by 2 December the soldiers were killing approximately 100
emus per week. Meredith was recalled on 10 December, and in his report he claimed 986 kills with 9,860 rounds, at a rate of exactly
10 rounds per confirmed kill. In addition, Meredith claimed 2,500 wounded birds had died as a result of the injuries that they had
sustained.[2]

Aftermath
Despite the problems encountered with the cull, the farmers of the region once again requested military assistance in 1934, 1943, and
1948, only to be turned down by the government.[2][17] Instead, the bounty system that had been instigated in 1923 was continued,
and this proved to be effective: 57,034 bounties were claimed over a six-month period in 1934.[6]

By December 1932, word of the Emu War had spread, reaching the United Kingdom. Some conservationists there protested the cull
as "extermination of the rare emu".[18] Dominic Serventy, an eminent Australian ornithologist, described the 'war' as "an attempt at
the mass destruction of the birds".[19][20][21]

Throughout 1930 and onward, exclusion barrier fencing became a popular means of keeping emu out of agricultural areas (in
addition to other vermin such as dingoes and rabbits).[22][23]

See also
Four Pests Campaign

References
1. Shuttlesworth, Dorothy Edwards (1967).The Wildlife of Australia and New Zealand. University of Michigan Press.
 p. 69.
2. Johnson, Murray (2006). "'Feathered foes': soldier settlers and Western Australia's 'Emu War' of 1932". Journal of
Australian Studies (88): 147–157. ISSN 1444-3058 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/1444-3058).
3. Gill, Frank B. (2007). Ornithology (https://books.google.com/books?id=zM0tG5ApO0UC&pg=PR26)(3rd ed.).
Macmillan. p. xxvi. ISBN 978-0-7167-4983-7.
4. " "Emu War" defended" (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4509731). The Argus. 19 November 1932. p. 22.
5. "Rain Scatters Emus" (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4504009). The Argus. 18 October 1932. p. 7.
6. Robin, Libby; Joseph, Leo; Heinshohn, Rob (2009).Boom and Bust: Bird Stories For a Dry Country(https://books.go
ogle.com/books?id=W_9jMwwC4foC&pg=PT267) . CSIRO Publishing. p. 256.ISBN 978-0-643-09606-6.
7. "Over the Speakers Chair"(http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2318780). The Canberra Times. Canberra, Australian
Capital Territory. 19 November 1932. Retrieved 10 January 2010.
8. Burton, Adrian (2013-08-01)."Tell me, mate, what were emus like?"(http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1890/1540-
9295-11.6.336/abstract). Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. 11 (6): 336–336. doi:10.1890/1540-9295-
11.6.336 (https://doi.org/10.1890%2F1540-9295-11.6.336) . ISSN 1540-9309 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/1540-93
09).
9. Arthur, Jay Mary (2003). The Default Country: A Lexical Cartography of T
wentieth-century Australia(https://books.go
ogle.com/books?id=kr7ddMAUnqUC&pg=P A123). UNSW Press. pp. 123–124.ISBN 978-0-86840-542-1.
10. "Machine Guns Sent Against Emu Pests"(http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2315329). The Argus. 3 November 1932.
p. 2.
11. West Australian, 4 March 1932, quoted in Johnson (2006), p152
12. "New Strategy In A War On The Emu" (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18516559). Sunday Herald. 5 July 1953.
p. 13.
13. "casuariiform" (http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/98874/casuariiform). Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009.
Retrieved 16 August 2009.
14. "Elusive Emus" (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2315839). The Argus. 5 November 1932. p. 4.
15. "War on Emus" (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4507996). The Argus. 10 November 1932. p. 8.
16. "Emu War Again" (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2317086). The Canberra Times. 12 November 1932. p. 1.
17. Request to Use Bombs to Kill Emus,The (Adelaide) Mail, (Saturday, 3 July 1943), p.12. (http://trove.nla.gov.au/news
paper/article/55872191)
18. Jenkins, C.F.H. (1988). The Wanderings of an Entomologist. Cornell University Press. p. 8. ISBN 0-7316-2888-8.
19. Serventy, Dominic Louis; Herbert Massey Whittell (1948).A Handbook of the Birds of Western Australia (with the
exception of the Kimberley Division). Patersons Press; Original:University of Wisconsin Press. p. 63.
20. Gore, J.G., "Looking Back: Australia's Emu Wars", Australian Geographic, Wednesday, 2 November 2016. (http://ww
w.australiangeographic.com.au/blogs/on-this-day/2016/11/on-this-day-the-emu-wars-begin)
21. Crew, B., "The Great Emu War: In which some large, flightless birds unwittingly foiled the Australian Army",
Scientific
American Blogs, Monday, 4 August 2014. (https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/running-ponies/the-great-emu-war-in-
which-some-large-flightless-birds-unwittingly-foiled-the-australian-army)
22. McKnight, Tom (July 1969). "Barrier Fencing for Vermin Control in Australia" (https://www.jstor.org.proxy-um.researc
hport.umd.edu/stable/213480). Geographical Review. 59 (3): 330–347.
23. New Strategy in a War on the Emu, The (Sydney) Sunday Herald, (Sunday, 5 July 1953), p13. (http://trove.nla.gov.a
u/newspaper/article/18516559)

External links
How we lost the "Emu War"
Plants & Animals: Emu
"Attack on Emus". The Argus. 12 November 1932.

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