THE EMU STRIKES BACK: AN INQUIRY INTO AUSTRALIA’S PECULIAR MILITARY ACTION OF 1932

Abstract

Military failures such as the infamous Great Emu War of 1932 Western Australia are arguably difficult to match in military history. In this article, we tackle the Seventh Heavy Battery of the Royal Australian Artillery’s attempt to ‘wage war’ on the Australia-indigenous flightless bird, the emu, by use of the Lewis machine gun, and its stunning failure. Drawing upon scant scholarly work on the topic, and perhaps even more rare sources (probably due to the humiliating defeat of the Royal Australian Army), we describe the ‘war’ via the use of 1932 (and onwards) press sources, parliamentary sources, expanding into the contemporary reverberations of the conflict in popular memory

Keywords

• military failure
• Australian army
• G.P.W. Meredith
• emus