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What happened
In late 1932, wheat farmers in the Campion district of Western Australia, many of them soldier-settlers struggling through the Depression, asked for machine guns. Thousands of emus were trampling their wheat.
The Defence Minister, Sir George Pearce, sent a three-man army crew with two Lewis guns and 10,000 rounds, on condition it cost the Commonwealth nothing. The newspapers were calling it the "Emu War" before the first shot was fired.
Within a week the guns had jammed, the emus had scattered, and a member of Parliament was asking whether a medal would be struck for this war. The troops were pulled out. Then they were sent back.
The army later claimed 986 emus killed. That number comes from its own report. What actually thinned the emus a few years later was a bounty scheme and fences.
Sources (77)
The sources behind this episode's script. Where we couldn't read one in full, it says so. Links go to the original where it's online.
Commonwealth Hansard (ParlInfo / historichansard.net)
- HoR 8 Nov 1932 (Thorby/Lyons): parlinfo.aph.gov.au
- Senate 8 Nov 1932 (Dooley): parlinfo.aph.gov.au
- HoR 9 Nov 1932: parlinfo.aph.gov.au
- Senate 18 Nov 1932 "Destruction of Emus": historichansard.net
- Senate 4 Dec 1930 (wheat guarantee): historichansard.net
- Also cited by ID: Senate 16 Nov 1932 (hansards80/1932-11-16/0019); HoR 22 Nov 1932 (hansardr80/1932-11-22/0082); Senate 5–6 Dec 1933 (hansards80/1933-12-05/0006, 1933-12-06/0014)
Trove newspapers
- News (Adelaide) 10 Oct 1932: trove.nla.gov.au
- Argus 12 Oct 1932: trove.nla.gov.au
- Daily News (Perth) 12 Oct 1932: trove.nla.gov.au
- Evening News (Rockhampton) 17 Oct 1932: trove.nla.gov.au
- Argus 18 Oct 1932: trove.nla.gov.au
- Nambucca & Bellinger News 21 Oct 1932: trove.nla.gov.au
- Labor Daily 28 Oct 1932: trove.nla.gov.au
- Daily News (Perth) 3 Nov 1932: trove.nla.gov.au
- Canberra Times 3 Nov 1932: trove.nla.gov.au
- News (Adelaide) 3 Nov 1932: trove.nla.gov.au
- Examiner 3 Nov 1932: trove.nla.gov.au
- Telegraph (Brisbane) 3 Nov 1932: trove.nla.gov.au
- West Australian 4 Nov 1932: trove.nla.gov.au
- News (Adelaide) 4 Nov 1932: trove.nla.gov.au
- Daily Telegraph 4 Nov 1932: trove.nla.gov.au
- Kalgoorlie Miner 5 Nov 1932: trove.nla.gov.au
- Daily News 5 Nov 1932: trove.nla.gov.au
- Sun 6 Nov 1932: trove.nla.gov.au
- Telegraph (Brisbane) 7 Nov 1932: trove.nla.gov.au
- Daily News 8 Nov 1932: trove.nla.gov.au
- SMH 9 Nov 1932: trove.nla.gov.au
- West Australian 9 Nov 1932: trove.nla.gov.au
- Mercury 9 Nov 1932: trove.nla.gov.au
- Daily News (satire) 9 Nov 1932: trove.nla.gov.au
- West Australian 10 Nov 1932: trove.nla.gov.au
- Argus 10 Nov 1932: trove.nla.gov.au
- Western Mail 10 Nov 1932 (Meredith quote; gun jam): trove.nla.gov.au
- Canberra Times 12 Nov 1932: trove.nla.gov.au
- Western Argus 15 Nov 1932 (letter): trove.nla.gov.au
- Argus 19 Nov 1932: trove.nla.gov.au
- Canberra Times 19 Nov 1932: trove.nla.gov.au
- Herald 23 Nov 1932 (wheat strike): trove.nla.gov.au
- Farmer and Settler 24 Nov 1932: trove.nla.gov.au
- Sunraysia Daily 28 Nov 1932: trove.nla.gov.au
- West Australian 10 Dec 1932: trove.nla.gov.au
- Toodyay Herald 22 Dec 1933 (O'Leary): trove.nla.gov.au
- Mount Barker & Denmark Record 5 Nov 1934: trove.nla.gov.au
- West Australian 6 Aug 1935: trove.nla.gov.au
- Daily News 6 Aug 1935: trove.nla.gov.au
- Kalgoorlie Miner 6 Aug 1935: trove.nla.gov.au
- Coolgardie Miner 23 Aug 1935: trove.nla.gov.au
- Western Mail 26 Sep 1935: trove.nla.gov.au
- West Australian 6 Nov 1935: trove.nla.gov.au
- West Australian 13 Nov 1935: trove.nla.gov.au
- Sunday Times 8 Dec 1935: trove.nla.gov.au
- Mail (Adelaide) 3 Jul 1943: trove.nla.gov.au
- Coolgardie Miner 30 Nov 1950: trove.nla.gov.au
- Sunday Herald 5 Jul 1953: trove.nla.gov.au
- Weekly Times 27 Oct 1954: trove.nla.gov.au
Scholarly (not read in full unless noted)
- Johnson, M. (2006), "'Feathered foes': soldier settlers and Western Australia's 'Emu War' of 1932", Journal of Australian Studies 30(88): 147–157, doi:10.1080/14443050609388083. Not read.
- Cook, R. J. & Jovanović, S. M. (2019), "The Emu Strikes Back", Romanian Journal of Historical Studies II(1). Read: romanianjournalofhistoricalstudies.wordpress.com
- Burton, A. (2013), "Tell me, mate, what were emus like?", Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 11(6): 336.
- Robin, L. (2009), "Emu: National Symbols and Ecological Limits", in Boom and Bust, CSIRO. Not read.
- Dapin, M. (2024), "The myths of the Emu War", in Lest: Australian War Myths. Not read.
Government and institutional
- NMA, Soldier settlement: nma.gov.au
- NMA, Cane toads: nma.gov.au
- SLWA, Depression: webarchive.slwa.wa.gov.au
- DBCA Fauna Note No. 8 "Emu": library.dbca.wa.gov.au
- DPIRD State Barrier Fence: web-prd.dpird.wa.gov.au
- Australian Museum, Emu: australian.museum
- BirdLife Australia, Emu: birdlife.org.au
- NSW NPWS, Emu: nationalparks.nsw.gov.au
- Victorian Govt Emu fact sheet: wildlife.vic.gov.au
- Sydney Harbour Federation Trust, Brigadier Meredith: harbourtrust.gov.au
Journalism
- ABC News, 10 Dec 2022: abc.net.au
- Dapin, Canberra Times, 28 Oct 2023: canberratimes.com.au
- Guardian, 7 Oct 2023: theguardian.com
- Farm Weekly, 19 Nov 2024: farmweekly.com.au
- Farm Weekly, 10 Nov 2025: farmweekly.com.au
- Crew, B. (2014), Scientific American blog (quotes Johnson): scientificamerican.com
- Vice, 17 Feb 2017; Know Your Meme (meme timeline); Atlas Obscura (Hanoi rats); National Geographic (Toy, 2024, contains errors). Wikipedia was used only as a map.