The Great Emu War of 1932: The Time Australia Declared War on Birds (And Lost)

December 10, 2025 dailydejavu

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History is full of epic battles. We have the Battle of Thermopylae (300 Spartans vs. Persia). We have Waterloo (Napoleon vs. Everyone). We have D-Day. But in late 1932, there was a military conflict that history books often forget, mostly out of embarrassment. It was a war between the Royal Australian Artillery and a flock of 20,000 flightless birds.

It is known as The Great Emu War. And spoiler alert: The birds won. Decisively.

Table of Contents

The Enemy Invasion: 20,000 Angry Dinosaurs To understand why this happened, we have to look at the context. Following World War I, the Australian government gave land in Western Australia to returning veterans to farm wheat. These “Soldier-Settlers” were tough men who had survived the trenches of France. But in 1932, the Great Depression hit, causing wheat prices to crash.

To make matters worse, a massive migration occurred. 20,000 Emus—giant, 6-foot tall, 40kg birds that look like velociraptors with feathers—migrated inland from the coast. They didn’t just walk through the farms; they destroyed them. They ate the crops, broke the fences, and let rabbits in (another pest). The farmers were helpless. They petitioned the government for aid. The Minister of Defence, Sir George Pearce, didn’t send fences. He decided to turn this into a military operation. He sent soldiers armed with Lewis Automatic Machine Guns and 10,000 rounds of ammunition.

The Opening Battles: “They Are Bulletproof!” The operation was led by Major G.P.W. Meredith. He went in expecting an easy target practice. He was essentially fighting oversized chickens. He was wrong.

On November 2, the soldiers spotted a group of 50 emus. They opened fire from a distance. The birds didn’t panic; they scattered. The Emus proved to be accidental tactical geniuses. Unlike humans who bunch up when frightened, Emus split into small groups and ran in chaotic zig-zag patterns at 30 mph (50 km/h). The heavy Lewis machine guns couldn’t traverse fast enough to track them. Out of hundreds of shots fired, perhaps a dozen birds fell. The rest vanished into the bush, mocking the Australian military.

(H2) The Truck Ambush (A Comedy of Errors) Major Meredith was frustrated. He decided to change tactics. On November 4, he planned an ambush near a dam where 1,000 emus were spotted. He waited until the birds were at point-blank range. He gave the order to fire. Result? The gun jammed after just 12 shots. The 1,000 birds ran away unharmed.

Desperate, the Major tried to match the birds’ speed. He mounted a machine gun on the back of a truck to chase them down. This was a disaster. The terrain was so rough that the truck was bouncing violently. The gunner couldn’t aim, and the Emus easily outran the vehicle. Even worse, an Emu reportedly got tangled in the truck’s steering wheel, causing the vehicle to crash into a fence. The birds weren’t just winning; they were countering.

The “Zulu” Tactics Major Meredith was baffled by the durability of the enemy. Emus have thick, dense feathers and tough skin. Unless hit in the head or heart, they could absorb multiple bullets and keep running. In his official report (which reads like a satire), Major Meredith wrote:

“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.”

Imagine that. A highly trained military officer comparing a bird to a Tank.

The Surrender By November 8, after wasting 2,500 rounds of ammunition, the army had confirmed only about 50 to 200 kills. The press was having a field day. Headlines mocked the government. One politician asked in parliament if “a medal would be struck for the war,” to which another replied that the medal should go to the Emus.

Under public humiliation, the military withdrew. The Emus remained. They continued to eat the wheat. The Australian government eventually admitted defeat and switched to a “Bounty System,” paying farmers to do the job themselves. This proved much more effective, but the stain on the military’s reputation remained forever.

Conclusion The Great Emu War stands as a hilarious lesson in human hubris. We built machine guns, we conquered nations, and we split the atom. But when faced with a mob of running birds in the Australian outback, humanity lost. Sometimes, nature doesn’t just survive; it fights back. And sometimes, it wins.