Australia · australia
The Emu War
Australia sent a machine gun to stop 20,000 birds. The birds won.
In 1932, the Royal Australian Artillery deployed Lewis machine guns against a marauding army of flightless birds. The birds scattered, regrouped, and outmanoeuvred the soldiers — twice. One of the only wars in history lost by a modern army to wildlife.
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Spring 1932. Western Australia. A drought had pushed 20,000 emus out of the outback and onto the wheat fields of Campion. The farmers, many of them Great War veterans, asked the government for help. The Defence Minister sent two soldiers, a truck, and a Lewis machine gun.
What the article will cover
- Why Western Australian wheat farmers had a bird problem in the first place
- Major G.P.W. Meredith, the officer in charge, and his two-week campaign
- How the emus scattered into small groups and evaded the fixed positions
- The parliamentary debate afterwards — and why the government refused a second campaign
- Why the internet rediscovered this story in 2019
Come back soon to read the full story.