{"id":1664,"date":"2018-01-02T14:48:55","date_gmt":"2018-01-02T14:48:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/schoolshistory.org.uk\/topics\/?p=1664"},"modified":"2018-01-02T14:50:13","modified_gmt":"2018-01-02T14:50:13","slug":"emu-war-1932","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/schoolshistory.org.uk\/topics\/emu-war-1932\/","title":{"rendered":"The Emu War of 1932"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Emu War of 1932<\/h2>\n

if we had a military division with the bullet-carrying capacity of these\u2026. it would face any army in the world. They could face machine guns with the invulnerability of tanks. They are like Zulus\u2026<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That was the assessment of Major Meredith of the\u00a0Australian\u00a0Army after his men were routed by a highly\u00a0unusual enemy.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1932 his men were called into action. Disturbed by an \u2018army\u2019 that was troubling the farms and outposts of Western Australia the armed forces were called into action.<\/p>\n

Armed with machine guns, rifles and small arms the soldiers took up highly advantageous positions deep in the Western Australian outback. A trap was set. The enemy would be slaughtered. Only this enemy wasn\u2019t your conventional enemy. It wasn\u2019t a rebellion; it wasn\u2019t an aboriginal army; it wasn\u2019t an invasion force, well not as we\u2019d know one.<\/p>\n

No, the enemy was an extremely large group of wild Emu\u2019s. The Emu population had exploded and was wreaking havoc in farms across Western Australia. having pinpointed the movement of this hoarde of birds, Major Meredith moved his men into position\u00a0in Murchiston District.<\/p>\n

Full equipped with state of the art weaponry it must have been assumed that this large scale cull would be a bloodbath. Indeed, the biggest concern would have been what to do with the remains of hundreds of dead\u00a0Emu\u2019s.<\/p>\n

On November 2nd 1932 a group of about 50 Emu\u2019s was seen. The soldiers opened fire but the majority of the birds scattered and escaped. Reports suggest that the total number of culled birds was 12.<\/p>\n

Having realised that long range shots were not effective a plan was hatched to ambush a larger group, of some 1000 Emu\u2019s, near a water hole. Meredith ordered his men to fire at virtually point blank range. 1000 unarmed birds; a series of machine guns at point blank range: what could go wrong? Well the machine guns jammed and the death toll barely got into double figures.<\/p>\n

After six days of engaging the Emu\u2019s in er \u2018battle\u2019 the situation was discussed in the Australian Parliament. A tactical withdrawal was ordered and within a month or beginning the operation, all of the troops had withdrawn. Such was the level of embarrassment that Major Meredith actually stated in his official report that his men had suffered no casualties \u2013 bar fatigue and a large dose of red face.<\/p>\n

Ornithologist, Dominic Serventy, commented on the war against the Emu:<\/p>\n

The machine-gunners\u2019 dreams of point blank fire into 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<\/p>\n

And so the war between mankind with his mechanised weapons versus unarmed Emu\u2019s was over. The Emu\u2019s had retained the territory that they wrought havoc in and suffered very few losses: reports range from as few as fifty up to a maximum of 400 birds being killed \u2013 and hundreds, if not thousands\u00a0of rounds were fired into the flock of birds at point blank range.<\/p>\n

\"Emu<\/a><\/p>\n

A follow up attempt was made, in which Major Meredith claims the results were significantly better. Even in the follow up attempt Meredith acknowledged that the kill rate was low: he estimated it took on average ten bullets per kill, and the death rate is estimated by him and may well be exaggerated. Once again the army was \u2018seen off\u2019 by the Emu and attempts to solve the farmers problems through military action were again halted amid further embarrassment.<\/p>\n

Farmers continued to lobby for assistance in dealing with the Emu, a bird they considered to be a pest and nuisance. Military intervention was requested on three further occasions, but rejected. Instead a \u2018bird bounty\u2019 was put in place. This proved far more successful.<\/p>\n

Not only was the failure of the army to cull the birds an embarrassing failure, it also attracted a lot of criticism. Conservation groups noted that the Emu is actually quite rare and that alternatives ought to have been sought.<\/p>\n

Contemporary Reporting of the Emu War<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Emu War of 1932 if we had a military division with the bullet-carrying capacity of these\u2026. it would face any army in the world. They could face machine guns with the invulnerability of tanks. They are like Zulus\u2026 That was the assessment of Major Meredith of the\u00a0Australian\u00a0Army after his men were routed by a… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1665,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-20th-century"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t