Close Menu
Honi Soit
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
    Trending
    • 2025 Queer Revue: A wild ride of wigs, fanfiction, and Pitbull 
    • I like my Lower House shaken, not stirred: LNP and Greens look to new leadership
    • 2025 USU Board Election Provisional Results Announced
    • 77 Years of Nakba: Thousands protest in Sydney against Israel’s Occupation
    • جذوري my roots
    • Patterns of a War-Torn Conscience: Towards a Healing Conceptualisation of Praxis
    • Enmore Psychogeography
    • The night has its own logic
    • About
    • Print Edition
    • Student Journalism Conference 2025
    • Writing Comp
    • Advertise
    • Locations
    • Contact
    Facebook Instagram X (Twitter) TikTok
    Honi SoitHoni Soit
    Monday, May 19
    • News
    • Analysis
    • Culture
    • Opinion
    • University
    • Features
    • Perspective
    • Investigation
    • Reviews
    • Comedy
    • Student Journalism Conference 2025
    Honi Soit
    Home»Misc

    One Bird And A Lot Of Stones

    By Adam MurphyOctober 16, 2015 Misc 4 Mins Read
    Share
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email
    Repeated image of an emu in style of propaganda poster with text "we want you to spoil all crops".
    Art by Katie Thorburn

    Most people would say that the late-August ‘Border Farce’ operation in Melbourne was a dismal failure, both of public relations and execution, and thank Christ for that. It was also a handy reminder that creating quasi-military law enforcement agencies ex nihilo and slapping oversized epaulettes and fancy insignia on its agents doesn’t do a lot for community endearment. But believe it or not, as botched as the creation and inaugural major operation of the Border Force was, it is a long way behind an even stupider attempt to exercise military authority within Australia’s borders: the ‘Emu War’.

    The Emu War, or Great Emu War as it is alternatively referred to, originated in a concern amongst Western Australian farmers in the early 1930s that their lands were being laid to waste by the unassuming emu. In the words of a contemporary news article, “[this] tough, prolific, gangling marauder of the sand plains … has invaded, in a frenzy of hunger, some of the finest fields at the time of ripening of the harvest to shear off crops with voracious beaks.” With their fears no doubt amplified by this grossly overblown language, farmers (who were also ex-soldiers) petitioned the Commonwealth government for assistance—of the military kind. Their pleas found favour in the east, and a small artillery force was dispatched in October 1932. Xerxes may have ordered the Hellespont whipped after it ruined his bridge, but it was Australia that decided to bring the might of the machine gun to bear against its native fauna.

    Despite a concerted campaign over the next fortnight, the emu proved to be a more formidable foe than first imagined. Typically the machine gunners would encamp themselves and wait in ambush for flocks of emus reported to number in the thousands. However, when such a flock approached and the gunners fired, the emus scattered at high speed. They were so effective at moving over the open country that a truck-mounted gunner was unable to keep up. In the absence of tactical changes on either side, this form of engagement continued for the whole campaign. When the military unit withdrew in mid-November 1932 after (very) limited success, their Commander, Major Meredith, was moved to comment that “if we had a military division with the bullet-carrying capacity of these birds it would face any army in the world … They can face machine guns with the invulnerability of tanks. They are like Zulus whom even dum-dum bullets [a particularly harmful variety] could not stop.” Given the prevailing level of racism in Australia at that time, this was astonishingly high praise. If the servicemen involved had been hoping for their own Defence of Rorke’s Drift or Great Marianas Turkey Shoot, they were doubtless disappointed to have been defeated by a strange flightless bird looking like an ostrich with hypertrichosis. 

    News of the Emu War reached far and wide. It was significant enough to have been discussed contemporaneously in the House of Representatives. It is also reported to have achieved some derisive publicity in the UK. And despite the participants’ complete lack of success, West Australian farmers were to officially request military help in their fight against the emu scourge at least three more times over the next two decades. Nevertheless, it seems the gangling marauder of the sand plains was eventually brought to heel via the same method that has caused the diminution or extinction of countless species the world over: the humble bounty system.

    In my view the Emu War should be added to the list of military fuckups, like Gallipoli, that some people feel proud of. It is evidence that our military is not cut out for those pesky domestic operations, and that’s the way it should stay. In some countries, officers of the state enjoy confusing and overlapping jurisdictions, are festooned with badges and told that they are last line of defence against paramilitarios or ‘troublesome minorities’ or whatever. That’s how innocent people get killed, and on a tragically regular basis. It’s insane that these militarised police forces were some kind of benchmark for whoever dreamt up the idea of the Australian Border Force and decided to install the buffoons who run it. So next time anyone in the government gets aroused at the thought of another Border Farce-style operation, remember: we are shit at this kind of thing. Lest we forget the Emu War.

    Australian history border farce border force emu war history military Politics War

    Keep Reading

    Disillusioned and Disengaged: The Issues Shaping Young Australians’ Vote

    HACK1001 How To Become a Parliamentarian

    A Booster Seat in Parliament

    Amplifying the Muted: Debunking Immigration Policies

    Why Dating Outside Your Politics Just Doesn’t Work

    Waving A White Flag

    Just In

    2025 Queer Revue: A wild ride of wigs, fanfiction, and Pitbull 

    May 18, 2025

    I like my Lower House shaken, not stirred: LNP and Greens look to new leadership

    May 17, 2025

    2025 USU Board Election Provisional Results Announced

    May 16, 2025

    77 Years of Nakba: Thousands protest in Sydney against Israel’s Occupation

    May 16, 2025
    Editor's Picks

    A meditation on God and the impossible pursuit of answers

    May 14, 2025

    We Will Be Remembered As More Than Administrative Errors

    May 7, 2025

    NSW universities in the red as plague of cuts hit students & staff

    April 30, 2025

    Your Compliance Will Not Save You

    April 16, 2025
    Facebook Instagram X (Twitter) TikTok

    From the mines

    • News
    • Analysis
    • Higher Education
    • Culture
    • Features
    • Investigation
    • Comedy
    • Editorials
    • Letters
    • Misc

     

    • Opinion
    • Perspective
    • Profiles
    • Reviews
    • Science
    • Social
    • Sport
    • SRC Reports
    • Tech

    Admin

    • About
    • Editors
    • Send an Anonymous Tip
    • Write/Produce/Create For Us
    • Print Edition
    • Locations
    • Archive
    • Advertise in Honi Soit
    • Contact Us

    We acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. The University of Sydney – where we write, publish and distribute Honi Soit – is on the sovereign land of these people. As students and journalists, we recognise our complicity in the ongoing colonisation of Indigenous land. In recognition of our privilege, we vow to not only include, but to prioritise and centre the experiences of Indigenous people, and to be reflective when we fail to be a counterpoint to the racism that plagues the mainstream media.

    © 2025 Honi Soit
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms
    • Accessibility

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.