Inside my postbox: The bizarre Emu war.

Most of us have heard of the bird, emu. Emus are indigenous to Australia, they are very large birds and they’re flightless. The emu is also featured on the Australian coat of arms. Many stamps, like the above one, have also been issued with a picture of an emu.

At first, I assumed the Emu War to be a joke. It turns out not only did it happen, but it also resulted in a victory for the emus. Can you believe that? You will after you read this article.

A mob of emus.

Emus migrate from the coastal regions to inland regions each year for breeding. An estimated 20,000 emus realised that the newly cultivated farmland in Campion was a good place for them to breed and to find food. The farmers were obviously not happy because their wheat crops were being destroyed. The emus also damaged fences which allowed rabbits to get through and to also destroy the crops.

Led by Major G.P.W. Meredith of the Seventh Heavy Battery of the Royal Australian Artillery, the army set out on 2 November 1932, determined to gun down a group of 50 birds in the district of Campion.

The men planned to annihilate the animals with two Lewis machine guns and a stockpile of 10,000 rounds of ammunition.

Lewis machine gun.

The Lewis is a gas-operated American weapon used extensively during World War I. It feeds bullets from a firing pan capable of holding almost 100 rounds. The gun can fire 500 rounds per minute. The soldiers — both current and former — were confident the birds were done, but the emus had other plans.

They moved in formation behind the birds, and the birds answered their organised assault with inspired chaos, scattering themselves in all directions to minimise the casualties.

The first series of shots fired was ineffective due to how far away the Emus were. A second round of gunfire was able to kill “a number” of birds. Later the same day a small flock was encountered, and “perhaps a dozen” birds were killed.

Later, they set up an ambush near a dam where 100 emus were heading. They waited until the birds were up close, then opened fire. By the time they had reloaded, the emus had scattered. Only 12 were killed. They saw no more emus that day.

In the days that followed Major Meredith chose to move further south where the birds were “reported to be fairly tame”. By the 8th of November, only 6 days into the war, 2,500 rounds of ammunition had been fired. Considering so many shots were fired the emu casualties were not great. The number of birds killed is unclear: one account claims just 50 birds, but other accounts range from 200 to 500.

Fortunately for Major Meredith, the military had not suffered any casualties at the ‘hands’ of the Emus, according to his official report anyway.

A second campaign was mounted by Major Meredith on 13 November 1932, killing 40 emus. Two days later, barely any, but about a month later its was reported that 100 emus were being killed every week. Even so, Meredith did the maths and found that it took 10 bullets to bring down every one emu, which was a pretty dismal effort.

Unfortunately for our conquering heroes, the government decided to provide the ammunition that the locals needed to take care of the problem themselves, and some 57,034 emu lives were claimed over six months in 1934.

Now, the tall bird that takes its place of pride on the Australian coat of arms with our other native, the kangaroo (also a popular Aussie food), has had its status as a protected animal reinstated.