The Great Emu War

In 1932, Australia fought a war. Not against another country, not even against rebellious settlers or invading forces—but against emus. Yes, actual birds. The Great Emu War, as it is now remembered, remains one of history’s strangest and most unintentionally hilarious military campaigns. And the best part? The emus won.

The story begins in Western Australia, where farmers were already struggling through the Great Depression. To make matters worse, enormous flocks of emus—giant, flightless birds standing over six feet tall—decided that newly planted wheat fields were the perfect all-you-can-eat buffet. Tens of thousands of emus marched across farmland, trampling fences, devouring crops, and leaving behind chaos in their feathery wake.

The farmers were furious and desperate. Their solution? Call in the military. After all, when facing an army of overgrown birds, who better to help than men with machine guns? The government agreed, sending soldiers armed with Lewis guns and 10,000 rounds of ammunition. Their mission was simple: reduce the emu population and restore peace to the wheat fields.

It was, in hindsight, a ridiculous plan.

The first encounter came in November 1932 near the town of Campion. Soldiers spotted a group of about fifty emus grazing. Confident, they opened fire. The birds scattered immediately, sprinting in all directions. Emus, it turned out, were not only fast but also highly skilled at zigzagging across open fields, making them surprisingly difficult targets. The soldiers managed to hit only a few. The rest disappeared into the brush, no doubt squawking in birdlike laughter at their would-be hunters.

Undeterred, the soldiers tried again, this time ambushing a group of a thousand emus. They set up their machine gun, waited for the birds to gather, and prepared to unleash chaos. But the gun jammed almost instantly, and by the time it was fixed, the emus had dispersed. Once again, the birds escaped.

This became a pattern. Whenever soldiers engaged, the emus scattered into small groups, outmaneuvering their pursuers. One commander later admitted that the birds displayed “a remarkable ability to withstand bullets.” In truth, it wasn’t that emus were invincible—it was just that hitting a fast-moving target with early 20th-century machine guns was harder than expected. The soldiers joked bitterly that each bird had the stamina of a tank.

Within weeks, the press was mocking the campaign. Headlines called it “The Great Emu War,” and Australians chuckled at reports of soldiers being outwitted by oversized poultry. Farmers, meanwhile, still had their crops destroyed, and the government faced embarrassment. After firing thousands of rounds and killing only a fraction of the birds, the military eventually gave up. The war was over. The emus had won.

The aftermath was as strange as the war itself. Politicians debated whether to try again, but public ridicule was too strong. Instead, the government turned to more practical measures, like bounty hunting and better fencing. Farmers continued to battle emus for years, but never again with the full force of the Australian Army.

Today, the Great Emu War is remembered less as a tragedy and more as a comedy of errors—a tale of human pride brought low by nature’s resilience. It is taught in classrooms, shared online as a meme, and told with a mixture of embarrassment and laughter.

But beneath the humor lies something more meaningful. The Great Emu War was really a clash between human ambition and the stubborn unpredictability of nature. In the end, the lesson is simple: no matter how advanced our weapons or how clever our strategies, sometimes nature just refuses to cooperate.

And perhaps the most humbling part? If you visit Australia today, you’ll still find emus striding across the landscape, unbothered and undefeated. The birds remain a living reminder that, once upon a time, humans went to war with them—and lost.

The Great Emu War may have been a military failure, but as a story, it is unforgettable. After all, how many wars can you name where the enemy couldn’t even fly?.