The Great Emu War: How Australia was beaten by a bird
An enemy once described by the man tasked with defeating them as being able to "face machine guns with the invulnerability of tanks" and "like Zulus whom even dum-dum bullets could not stop" faced soldiers from the Australian Army in 1932 and won.
Being able to stand eye to eye with the opposition but not outrun them proved to be the main problem for Seventh Heavy Battery of the Royal Australian Artillery.
The setting: early 1930s Western Australia. The enemies: Australian soldiers and... the emu, a large flightless bird and a cultural icon of the country.
What became known as the Great Emu War can trace its origins back to the end of the First World War, when large numbers of Australian and British veterans settled in Western Australia, often in marginal areas, to become farmers.
After the 1930s Great Depression, however, times became hard.
The price of wheat, which these farmers had been encouraged to cultivate, fell, with promised government subsidies not being received.
By late 1932, matters were coming to a head, with farmers preparing to harvest the season's crop while threatening to refuse to load the wheat.
Then came the emus – 20,000 of them.
The indigenous birds regularly migrate after their breeding season, heading to the coast from the inland regions.
They began to advance into farm territory, eating and spoiling crops and leaving large gaps in fences where rabbits could enter and cause further problems.
The farmers, understandably, were fed up.
A number of veterans turned farmers met with Sir George Pearce, the Minister of Defence, to request permission to deploy machine guns on the birds as the First World War veterans had seen their effectiveness first-hand.
Pearce – who later became known as the 'Minister of the Emu War' – agreed on the condition that the guns were to be used by military personnel only, with the hope that the birds would make good target practice.
The farmers were to provide the soldiers with food and accommodation and pay for the ammunition, while troop transport was to be financed by the Western Australian government.
The operation was headed by Major Gwynydd Purves Wynn-Aubrey Meredith of the Seventh Heavy Battery of the Royal Australian Artillery.
The Major commanded two soldiers armed with Lewis (light machine) guns and 10,000 rounds of ammunition.
It was due to begin in October 1932 but ran into trouble straight away.
A period of rainfall caused the emus to scatter over a wide area, delaying proceedings until 2 November.
At this point, the soldiers were deployed, reportedly with the aim of collecting 100 emu skins so their feathers could be used to make hats for light horsemen.
The men travelled to Campion, where they saw about 50 emus.
What they weren't expecting was for the birds to get organised.
The emus resisted attempts to herd them into an ambush, staying out of range of the guns and running in small groups to make themselves difficult to target.
Efforts resumed in earnest two days later, with the troops setting up an ambush near a local dam, having spotted more than 1,000 emus heading towards their position.
Despite the gunners waiting until the birds were at close range before opening fire, they were foiled after their gun jammed.
Only 12 birds were killed, with the rest scattering and no more birds were seen that day.
Later efforts saw Major Meredith move south, where the birds were reported to be "fairly tame".
The soldiers even attempted to mount one of their guns onto a truck to improve their tally, but the vehicle wasn't able to gain on the emus and the ride was too rough for the gunner to fire any accurate shots.
After six days, the troops had fired 2,500 rounds of ammunition with the number of birds killed estimated at between 50 and 500 – the latter figure was provided by the settlers. There were no human casualties.
Dominic Serventy, an eminent Australian ornithologist from the era, said: "The machine-gunners' dreams of point-blank fire into serried masses of emus were soon dissipated.
"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.
"A crestfallen field force therefore withdrew from the combat area after about a month."
On 8 November 1932, the Australian House of Representatives discussed the operation after negative coverage by the local media, including claims that "only a few" emus had died.
The military personnel and guns were swiftly withdrawn, after which Maj Meredith compared the emus to Zulus, praising their impressive maneuverability, even while badly wounded.
He said: "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.
"They are like Zulus whom even dum-dum bullets could not stop."
But it wasn't over yet. The emus continued their attacks on the farmers' crops and by 12 November, Sir George Pearce had approved a resumption of military efforts, with Maj Meredith once again placed in the field due to an apparent lack of experienced machine gunners in the state.
This time, they experienced more success, with the guns accounting for about 100 emus per week by 2 December, before the operation ended on 10 December.
Maj Meredith's final report details 986 kills with 9,860 rounds, at a rate of 10 rounds per confirmed kill.
He also claimed that 2,500 wounded birds had died because of injuries sustained.
Ultimately, it was the ineffectiveness of the tactic that 'lost' the Emu War for the Australian Army.
The previous system of culling birds through a bounty system was reintroduced, proving far more effective.
During a six-month period in 1934, 57,034 bounties were claimed.
Further requests for military assistance, meanwhile, were turned down in 1934, 1943 and 1948.
The 'war' was also seen in a dim light by the international community.
British conservationists described the cull as the "extermination of the rare emu", while Mr Serventy described the cull as "an attempt at the mass destruction of the birds".
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