Man holding up a dead emu for the camera during the “Emu War,” (November 25, 1932), in Western Australia[532X640].

In late 1932, Western Australian farmers struggling through the Great Depression faced an unexpected problem: tens of thousands of emus. After breeding inland, the birds migrated toward the coast and found the newly cultivated wheat fields ideal feeding grounds. They trampled fences, destroyed crops, and let rabbits in after them, worsening the damage. Farmers, many of them veterans from World War I, appealed to the government for help. The Minister of Defence approved a limited military operation to assist, sending Major G.P.W. Meredith and two soldiers armed with Lewis machine guns to reduce the emu population.
The operation quickly became infamous. The terrain made the birds difficult to target, the machine guns often jammed, and the emus scattered before large numbers could be hit. By early December when the operation was ended, soldiers had fired nearly 10,000 rounds, claiming around 986 kills, though that number is disputed. Public ridicule followed, and the press dubbed the event the “Emu War.” If interested, I write about the event in depth here: https://open.substack.com/pub/aid2000/p/hare-brained-history-42-the-emu-war?r=4mmzre&utm_medium=ios