Nightshift – Kurzgesagt after Dark
Nightshift – Kurzgesagt after Dark
Emu Wars SOURCES
For this video we relied a lot on actual footage of the war. Crazy.
The machine gun rattles in your hands. Somewhere in the sunburnt fields ahead - the enemy.
A head rises above the crops. Then another. You’re an Australian soldier. Facing - emus.
Here you’ll find the original British Movietone report on the Emu War as it was shown in cinemas in January 1933: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1wA0PKeJqc
Everything Is Falling Apart
It’s 1932, and Australia is deep in the Great Depression. In the West, farmers struggle to grow wheat on dry, unforgiving land. The government has promised help, but delivered nothing. Wheat prices are collapsing. Many farmers have already left. Then - it gets worse.
20,000 emus sweep through the region for water and grain. It’s paradise for the emus, but hell for the farmers. The emus eat the crops, flatten the fields, tear down fences. The farmers turn to the government. They want machine guns - loaded.
#Report: Use of Machine Guns for Eradication of Emus in Western Australia and Wild Horses in North Queensland, in: National Archives of Australia: MP742/1, 17/5/219.
#Mark Dapin, The myths of the Emu War, in Lest. Australian War Myths (Simon & Schuster, 2024) pp. 103-125.
https://www.simonandschuster.com.au/books/Lest/Mark-Dapin/9781761639548
Solving Problems with Guns
Under pressure, the Minister of Defence agrees to step in, deploying three soldiers. But that’s it. The farmers have to pay for the bullets. And if the whole thing backfires, it’s not his problem.
Reporters and cameras show up. If the army is going to fight Australia's own national symbol, they might as well film it.
The soldiers are sent to Campion, a remote settlement where large flocks of emus have gathered. With them: two machine guns and 10,000 rounds of ammunition, funded by the local agricultural bank.
The operation is led by Major Gwynydd Purves Wynne-Aubrey Meredith. Meredith is a World War I veteran - on paper. He spent years in a garrison on a remote island, defending no one against nothing. When he was sent to Europe in 1918, he caught mumps and by the time he left hospital, the war was over. But now he gets his chance to fight.
Further information on Major Gwynyyd Purves Wynne-Aubrey Meredith can be found on the Virtual War Memorial of Australia:
Nothing Goes to Plan
Meredith wants the farmers to drive the emus together, so that his men can gun them down. But the emus have scattered. He decides to ambush them at a nearby waterhole at sundown. It seems like the perfect setup, but…
Feathers fly, some emus fall, but most are running away, even when hit. “They can face machine guns with the invulnerability of tanks,” Meredith reports.
In fact, the emu's thick feathers hide their true shape, so bullets often just tear through plumage. And: much of an emu's body is gut, so hits rarely damage anything vital.
#Richard Stockton, Inside Australia’s Hapless Campaign Against Emus, The Great Emu War Of 1932, All That’s Interesting, October 27, 2021.
Meredith gets another chance the next day. A thousand emus approach and stop in a long line. Perfect targets. The gun opens fire. But after a few seconds, it jams. The emus are safe again. And it seems as if they’re planning something...
We changed the chronology here a little for the flow of the story. Meredith made his statement after the battle with the thousand Emus, but he meant it as a general description of Emu tenacity. Here is his statement in full:
Remarking upon the astounding ability of the emus to keep running when badly wounded, Major Meredith said: 'If we had a military division with the bullet carrying capacity of these birds, it would face any army in the world. They could face machine guns with the invulnerability of tanks.”
The original newspaper story is here:
Western Mail, Perth, 10 November, 1932
Emu Resistance
They’re now forming small groups, moving quietly through fields and scrub like trained soldiers.To the reporters, it looks like organized guerrilla warfare. Meredith agrees. There even seem to be leaders - tall emus, standing guard while the others feed. But that’s just normal emu behavior. And the “leaders” aren’t towering soldiers, but just larger females.
As the ridicule grows even in parliament, the government withdraws the soldiers. When they depart, the emus reappear in huge flocks as if to bid them farewell. Then they continue destroying the crops.
#The Daily News, Perth, 10 November, 1932
The farmers direct their fury at the politicians and a few days later, the soldiers return – mocked by the public. But the more people laugh, the more seriously Meredith seems to take it. His reports begin to sound like real war reports. Encounters become battles. A major success: more than 3,000 emus killed. No casualties on his side.
The kill count is pure guesswork. Countless emus remain. The soldiers are out of ammunition - and the bank won’t pay for more. And that’s it.
The war is over. The emus have won.
But out in the fields, things look different. The farmers take matters into their own hands - with their old rifles, new fences and a bounty for every dead emu, paid by the government. They succeed. Meredith doesn’t. Far away from the fields, he signs up for the Second World War, but waits for his mission again. In 1945, he is sent to New Guinea to fight the Japanese, but by the time he arrives, they have just surrendered.
#Richard Stockton, Inside Australia’s Hapless Campaign Against Emus, The Great Emu War Of 1932, All That’s Interesting, October 27, 2021.
He has served in two world wars, but never fought. Only once – against emus.
Meredith was later involved in the Korean War, but he did not fight. He was, however, on the frontline "as a civilian chief inspector of ammunition and explosives."