Encounter 08 · 08 of 42 · November 1932
This actually happened
In 1932 the Australian military was sent after emus. The emus did not sign a treaty. Parliament had to talk about it anyway.
Campion, Western Australia · place approximate
Midday. No golden dust. The field is just a field.
What if everyone else is right, and the plan is simply silly?
The situation
After the First World War, soldier-settlers in Western Australia were growing wheat in country that also supported tens of thousands of emus. In late 1932 the birds were eating crops. Farmers asked for help. The government sent soldiers with Lewis guns.
No lesson required. A country sent the army after large flightless birds and did not get the result it wanted. Humor here is not a way of saying the farmers’ losses were cute. It is a way of not pretending the scene was an epic.
History was under no obligation to be plausible.
What they knew
- Major G. P. W. Meredith of the Royal Australian Artillery led a small party in the Campion district in November 1932.
- Emus proved difficult to shoot in useful numbers. They scattered. Guns jammed. Heat and distance did their work.
- The operation was withdrawn. It was discussed in the Australian parliament. Newspapers found it funny, which was not a comfort to the farmers.
What they could not know
- Whether a second attempt would go better (a later one also did not solve the birds).
- What else might have been tried first.
What was at stake
Crops, settler debt, and a few men’s dignity. The emus’ stake was being shot at. Colonial land use sits under the joke and should not be erased by it.
The next move
They fired. The emus left and came back in other places. The war, so called, was not won.
What they had
- Machine guns
- A truck
- An estimate of twenty thousand birds
- A metaphor that got out of hand
What didn’t work
The guns, as a policy.
What happened
The emus remained. The episode remained, as a fact people still tell because it is embarrassing and true.
What if everyone else is right, and the plan is simply silly?
Private. No one else will see it.