The Australians Waged War On The Emus..... And Lost.

Yes, this was a real war .The Great Emu War of 1932 (nb. not the official name for this war - it doesn't have one).

In short - bad economy and no food imports led to Australia tryinh to grow their own food. Emus ate the food. War breaks out (against the Emus). Emus are surprisingly resistant to guns. The emus use guerrilla tactics. The emus won the war.

The long story - the economy was terrible, and the effects of the Great Depression made it so that Australia could not import wheat and other foods. They tried to grow their own wheat, but it was mostly unsuccessful and did not grow well.

Approximately 20,000 migrating emus destroyed wheat fields in search of food and broke fences, ‘threatening’ the farms run by WWI veterans. However, instead of going to the ministry of agriculture, the farmers went to the ministry of defence because they viewed the emu attack as an attack from enemy forces.

The minister of defence (George Pearce) agreed to launch war on the emu, but only military personnel were allowed to fire the guns. The farmers were made to pay for everything, and Pearce thought that it would be good firing practice for the soldiers. (Well, little did he know).

So here began The Emu War. The emus were hard to hit as they deployed a scatter formation with great speed, and the gun often jammed so the emus left (mostly) unharmed. After a miserable defeat, the army decided to retreat but the farmers begged for a second assault.

So, began round 2…

The Australian lost 2-0 to the emus, and ended up offering a bounty.

986 emus were confirmed killed. However it was claimed that up to 2,500 birds might have died from their wounds. To put this in context - that is only around 10% of the emu population. The Australians wasted 10,000 rounds of ammunition on such few kills, so it was considered a failure.

And that is how the emus won against the Australians in their own war.

The moral of the story? Do not fight an emu

Did you know

• It took on average 10 bullets to kill an emu

• Even when emus took 3 bullets, they could run just fine

• The general described them as tanks that could face any military in the world

• Emus are the national bird of Australia

• Emus are 6ft tall (1.8m) and 120 pounds (54.4kg)

• They are the world’s tallest bird

• Their speed can reach up to 31 mph

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