Episode Notes:
In 1932, the Australian government deployed soldiers and machine guns to the Western Australian outback to deal with a crisis threatening the livelihoods of desperate farmers. The enemy: twenty thousand emus. What followed was one of the most absurd military operations in recorded history — and the emus won, decisively and without any apparent awareness that they had done so.
Host Shawn Spainhour takes you into the full story: the First World War veterans who had been given land by a grateful government and then abandoned to the grinding economics of the Great Depression, the annual emu migration that had been crossing that same land for millions of years before anyone planted wheat on it, and the three-week campaign that produced nine hundred confirmed kills out of twenty thousand birds and became the national punchline of a story that started as a desperate plea for help.
The Great Emu War is funny. It is also, if you sit with it long enough, quietly heartbreaking.
Strange Epochs tells true stories from history’s stranger corners. Each episode is written for deep listening — slow, atmospheric, and immersive. Whether you’re behind the wheel, unwinding after a long day, or settling in for sleep, this show is built to pull you in and carry you somewhere else.
Sources are listed in the show notes:
- Wikipedia contributors. Emu War. Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 2024.
- Serventy, Dominic. Observations on the Emu War. Referenced in ornithological records, 1932–1933.
- Britannica editors. Emu War. Encyclopaedia Britannica, updated 2023.
- National Geographic. The Bizarre Story of When Australia Went to War with Emus and Lost. 2024.
- Beyer, Greg. The Great Emu War: When Australians Lost to Flightless Birds. The Collector, 2023.
- Meredith, Major G.P.W. Official Report on the Emu Cull Operations, Campion District, Western Australia. Royal Australian Artillery, December 1932.
- The Melbourne Argus. Various reports on the Emu War. November through December, 1932.
- History Hit. The Great Emu War: How Flightless Birds Beat the Australian Army. 2023.