THE GREAT EMU WAR

esentation by Madita Brown

GENERAL
Late 1932, during the Great Depression.
INFORMATION “Official”War: 2nd Nov.- 10th Dec.
1932
Campion District, Western Australia
Australia lost
WHAT LEAD UP TO THE WAR
The Great Depression, global economic
downturn significantly affected Australia
Australia relies heavily on its export
industry and suddenly no one was
buying
Returning WW1 soldiers were given
farmland to cultivate wheat and raise
sheep (soldier settlement scheme)
With the current economic crisis they
weren’t making enough money
Due to multiple different variables the
land in WA was almost unusable
The farmers (partly ex-military) were
under lots of stress (Australians lined up for food in WA during the Great Depression)
 WHAT DID THE EMUS DO
Emus typically migrate to the coast after breeding
By late 1932 20’000 emus had migrated to the
season
newly cultivated lands.
They stumbled upon the lush farmlands and the 20’000
Emus started
They ate eating and destroying
and destroyed the crops
the crops
The The
ex-military farmers shot the emus but it
ex-military would shoot the emus but didn’t put a
dentsadly
in theitgrowing numbers
didn’t put a dent in the ever growing
numbers.
Millions more pounds in lost crops and damage
THE FARMERS RETALIATE AND THE AUSTRALIAN MILITARY GETS INVOLVED

The farmers go to the Minister of Defence, George

Pearce
Many people weren’t impressed by the idea to wage we
on emus, our National bird
Pearce made the farmers sign an agreement that they
would pay for everything and carry any potential blame
if the operation went wrong
Major G.P.W Meredith of the Seventh Heavy Battery of
the Royal Australian Artillery and his troops were set to
command the war

(Minister of Defence, George Pearce)

FIRST ATTEMPTS

Armed with 10’000 round of ammunition, 2

Lewis guns (machine guns), 2 troops and a film
crew
Emus ran in all directions, minimising the
casualties
Troops tried herding them together again to no
success
A couple days later 1000 emus spotted
Opened fire from point blank range
10-12 killed before their guns jammed from rain
and the remaining emus escaped
Negative media attention led to the military
being pulled from the operation
SECOND
ATTEMPT
Major Meredith mounted the guns
onto trucks borrowed from local
farmers
Difficulties aiming on the bumpy
roads
Emus easily outran the trucks
One driver became particularly
enraged and tried to run an emu over
but its head got tangled in the steering
wheel and they crashed
The media ridiculed the military in
light of the embarrassing and
unsuccessful outcome
Military was pulled indefinitely
“
If we had a military division with the bullet-carrying
capacity of these birds,
Type a quote here. it would face any
world… They can face machine guns with the
army in the

invulnerability of tanks. They are like Zulus whom even

dum-dum bullets could not stop.

-Major
-Joe
Meredith
Bloggs
THE AFTERMATH
Meredith and his men killed an estimated 986
emus and used 9,860 rounds
An additional 2’500 emus died of injuries
they had sustained
Locals were supplied with ammunition to deal
with the emus themselves
A bounty was set for killing emus
Farmers requested assistance again in 1934,
1943 and 1948
It was even requested the emus be
exterminated by “light” bombs
As a solution better fences were built
You cant kill me
 I HOPE YOU
ENJOYED MY
PRESENTATION
Sources
Pictures:
https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DYtdR2kj4Zjo&psig=AOvVaw0rxgP10Wsblpk6jB9jfJX5&ust=1646654542831000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=
0CAgQjRxqFwoTCMjfgqu4sfYCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAg
https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.quotev.com%2Fstory%2F11275662%2FFor-Your-Information%2F54&psig=AOvVaw0Q0-CXa4xJdBJN9Gy_NtpY&ust=1646656445635000&sour
ce=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAgQjRxqFwoTCKiZrLa_sfYCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAL
https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailymail.co.uk%2Fnews%2Farticle-5547741%2FGreat-Emu-War-resulted-failure-Australian-army-despite-machine-gun-tactics.html&psig=AOvV
aw0Q0-CXa4xJdBJN9Gy_NtpY&ust=1646656445635000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAgQjRxqFwoTCKiZrLa_sfYCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAX
https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Foddfeed.net%2Faustralian-emu-war%2F&psig=AOvVaw2Eof0gkxEVuggWb_HSuK0E&ust=1646656851758000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAgQ
jRxqFwoTCJCw1ffAsfYCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAU
Australian soldiers during WWI. (Photo Credit : SLQbot / Wikimedia Commons)
https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fallthatsinteresting.com%2Fgreat-emu-war&psig=AOvVaw2ma2GeIR9TKMepY1QI0iak&ust=1646658138372000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAg
QjRxqFwoTCPDEu93FsfYCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAb
https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fmedium.com%2F%40treycranney%2Fthe-great-emu-war-of-1932-529d2af5595&psig=AOvVaw2x0Vk5yOtsHqvtkBUGe_y0&ust=1646658488457000&
source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAgQjRxqFwoTCMC5w4THsfYCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAK
https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=i&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wanowandthen.com%2FGreat-Depression.html&psig=AOvVaw06hC31bhRWa2DhK5Dpkt3l&ust=1646680181542000&source=images&cd=vfe&v
ed=0CAsQjRxqFwoTCPipre2XsvYCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD
https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fde.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FGeorge_Pearce&psig=AOvVaw3NX5WEBKeJhbWYDb1j1YSK&ust=1646683337693000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=
0CAsQjRxqFwoTCPCHyc2jsvYCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD
Lewis machine gun The Lewis machine gun is a light machine gun that was widely used in the first world war. The same gun was used against emus in Australia, more than a decade later. Photo Credit : Fallschirmjägergewehr 42 / Wikimedia
Commons)
A clipping from an old edition of a newspaper. (Photo Credit : National Library of Australia)
https://m.imgur.com/gallery/bJeaV
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/Deceased_emu_during_Emu_War.jpg
Information:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXpu6tbFCsI
https://www.scienceabc.com/social-science/what-was-the-emu-war-of-australia-and-what-was-the-outcome.html
https://nomadsworld.com/great-emu-war/
https://www.thehumanexception.com/l/the-great-emu-war/
https://medium.com/@treycranney/the-great-emu-war-of-1932-529d2af5595