After World War I, many Australian soldiers returned home to their country, looking for ways to earn a little cash. Several of them came to Western Australia in hopes of becoming wheat farmers. The environment of Australia was less than ideal when it came to agriculture, but the Great Depression made farming even worse and more difficult. On top of all of that, nearly 20,000 emus came for a little visit.
Emus are very powerful birds. Many can grow up to the size of 6 1/2 feet. They have strong, clawed feet that can rip apart metal and wire fences and can run up to 30 miles per hour over a long distance. To put that into perspective, the fastest runner in the world, Usain Bolt, can run at a top speed of 24 miles per hour. Yeah. Pretty powerful birds.
The Australians deemed that the solution to this emu infestation was armed soldiers. The soldiers drove into Western Australia with 10,000 rounds of machine gun ammunition and a pair of machine guns. The war lasted for several weeks, casualties for emus totaled a little over 1,000. That sounds like a good amount but in comparison with 20,000 emus in Western Australia, it's really not that much.
Part of the reason why the soldiers couldn't kill the emus was that when the emus would disperse into small groups, effectively eliminating the soldier's ability to kill the emus in large groups. As many people deem it, this war was one of the weirdest and useless wars to ever be fought by trained soldiers. I think I agree.
Picture of an emu:
Sources: http://nowiknow.com/the-great-emu-war/
https://listverse.com/2017/03/12/10-crazy-facts-about-the-great-australian-emu-war/
Fun Facts:
- The emus actually ruined the lives of many people coming home from World War I
- The Australian Minister of Defence thought that it would be good PR to have the "war."
- People in the cities were outraged because the government was using "unnecessary brutality and force."
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