Emus Outrun Australia's Machine Guns in Fateful Battle

In 1932, Western Australia's wheat country was plagued by an unexpected enemy: 20,000 emus. The birds had migrated inland after their breeding season and discovered the newly settled farmland, where they found cleared land, crops, and water for stock. The ex-soldier farmers, who knew the devastating power of machine guns from World War I, petitioned the Minister of Defence for military assistance to protect their livelihoods.

The Australian government dispatched a military detachment, led by Major G.P.W. Meredith of the Seventh Heavy Battery of the Royal Australian Artillery, with two soldiers and two Lewis light machine guns. The force was equipped with 10,000 rounds of ammunition, but the emus proved to be formidable opponents. They broke into small groups, scattered in every direction, and avoided massed targets.

The military's efforts were a disaster, with only 50-200 emus killed out of 20,000, despite expending nearly 2,500 rounds. The emus' guerrilla tactics, which included posting lookouts to alert the others of approaching troops, left the machine guns ineffective. Ornithologist Dominic Serventy later observed that the emu command had ordered these tactics, and the machine guns' dreams of point-blank fire into massed birds were dissipated.

The campaign was eventually abandoned on November 8, 1932, after a week of fighting. The Minister of Defence, George Pearce, withdrew the troops, citing the futility of the mission. The farmers' pleas for assistance resumed almost immediately, and the gunners returned within the month for a longer second operation, which claimed nearly a thousand birds but still failed to make a significant dent in the emu population.