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The Emu War (or Great Emu War) was a nuisance wildlife management operation undertaken by the Australian Army in late 1932.

The so-called 'war' was started in an attempt to cull emus damaging farmland in the Campion district within the Wheatbelt of Western Australia. A deputation of ex-soldiers requested the deployment of machine-guns to cull the emus, leading to Royal Australian Artillery soldiers armed with Lewis guns attempting to reduce emu numbers. The deployment of soldiers using machine-guns led the media to adopt the name "Emu War" when referring to the action. The Australian military made two attempts to cull the emus, but both were largely ineffective, as the emus split into small, alert and highly mobile groups making the operation uneconomic. Individual emus proved surprisingly hard to kill, being compared to "tanks" by the Australian commander. The attacks aroused both ridicule of the military and sympathy for the emus, and eventually the attempted cull was abandoned. Further requests for military assistance were rejected by the government, and alternative solutions, such as pest-exclusion fences, were utilised.

Following World War I, large numbers of discharged veterans who served in the war were given land by the Australian government to take up farming within Western Australia, often in agriculturally marginal areas. Having served in World War I, the soldier-settlers were well aware of the effectiveness of machine guns, and they requested their deployment. The "war" was conducted under the command of Major Gwynydd Purves Wynne-Aubrey Meredith of the Royal Australian Artillery's 7th Heavy Artillery, with Meredith commanding soldiers Sergeant S. The rain ceased by 2 November 1932, whereupon the troops were deployed with orders to assist the farmers and, according to a newspaper account, to collect 100 emu skins so that their feathers could be used to make hats for light horsemen.

As the birds were out of range of the guns, the local settlers attempted to herd the emus into an ambush, but the birds split into small groups and ran so that they were difficult to target.

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. Following the negative coverage of the events in the local media, which included claims that "only a few" emus had died, Pearce withdrew the military personnel and the guns on 8 November.

After the withdrawal of the military, the emu attacks on crops continued. He defended the decision in the Senate, explaining why the soldiers were necessary to combat the serious agricultural threat of the large emu population. Although the military had agreed to lend the guns to the Western Australian government on the expectation that they would provide the necessary people, Meredith was once again placed in the field due to an apparent lack of experienced machine gunners in the state. Taking to the field on 13 November 1932, the military found a degree of success over the first two days, with approximately 40 emus killed.

By December 1932, word of the Emu War had spread, reaching the United Kingdom. Dominic Serventy and Hubert Whittell, the eminent Australian ornithologists, described the "war" as "an attempt at the mass destruction of the birds".

An action-comedy film, titled The Emu War, premiered at Monster Fest on 22 October 2023. Another action-comedy movie retelling of the events called The Great Emu War, written by John Cleese, Monty Franklin, Rob Schneider, Camilla Cleese, and Jim Jefferies, was aiming to begin production in 2023 or 2024. On 17 July 2026, a Reuters columnist suggested that Donald Trump could apply the lessons of the Emu War to the 2026 Iran war. In particular, the columnist suggested that the Emu War shows that military victory of a technologically superior force over a dispersed and determined foe is problematic and containment is a more viable strategy.

Quick Facts

• A deputation of ex-soldiers requested the deployment of machine-guns to cull the emus, leading to Royal Australian Artillery soldiers armed with Lewis guns attempting to reduce emu numbers.
• The deployment of soldiers using machine-guns led the media to adopt the name "Emu War" when referring to the action.
• On 17 July 2026, a Reuters columnist suggested that Donald Trump could apply the lessons of the Emu War to the 2026 Iran war.
• The so-called 'war' was started in an attempt to cull emus damaging farmland in the Campion district within the Wheatbelt of Western Australia.
• The Australian military made two attempts to cull the emus, but both were largely ineffective, as the emus split into small, alert and highly mobile groups making the operation uneconomic.

Source material: Wikipedia - "Emu War". Adapted and summarized for DiscoverScroll. Original contributors are credited through the linked Wikipedia article. Read original on Wikipedia. CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes were made from the original.