WEBVTT - BrainStuff Classics: What Was the Emu War? 0:00:01.840 --> 0:00:04.360 Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:06.680 --> 0:00:10.560 Hey brain Stuff. I'm Lauren Bogelbaum and this is a 0:00:10.640 --> 0:00:14.400 classic from the vault. In this one, we did into 0:00:14.520 --> 0:00:18.200 the weird moment in history when Australia went to war 0:00:18.520 --> 0:00:23.759 with a local population of EMUs and absolutely lost. 0:00:26.200 --> 0:00:28.920 Hey brain Stuff, Lauren bogolbam here with the story of 0:00:28.960 --> 0:00:32.800 the Emu War. It begins after World War One when 0:00:32.840 --> 0:00:35.720 soldiers returned home to Australia. The government was eager to 0:00:35.720 --> 0:00:37.040 show its support for veterans. 0:00:37.520 --> 0:00:38.080 Take land. 0:00:38.200 --> 0:00:42.000 The government said, grow wheat and we'll pay handsomely for it. 0:00:42.000 --> 0:00:43.920 It was a mission for the bright eyed and hopeful, 0:00:44.000 --> 0:00:47.040 for men eager to cultivate their futures. As they cultivated 0:00:47.040 --> 0:00:50.600 the soil in Western Australia. You could say the plan 0:00:50.720 --> 0:00:53.800 was flawed from the start. The government had ninety thousand 0:00:53.800 --> 0:00:56.760 hectors that's two hundred and twenty two thousand acres to 0:00:56.840 --> 0:00:59.560 go around, but that wasn't enough for the nearly five 0:00:59.560 --> 0:01:02.639 thousand veterans who wanted it. Land was doled out as 0:01:02.640 --> 0:01:05.600 it became available, and the choicest lots were given away first. 0:01:05.959 --> 0:01:08.480 The remaining veterans got land in Perth, which was not 0:01:08.600 --> 0:01:11.800 ideal for farming. What's more, in the years that followed 0:01:11.800 --> 0:01:14.679 the initial land handout, in the early nineteen twenties, Western 0:01:14.680 --> 0:01:19.399 Australia combated drought, frost, and a significant rabbit infestation. While 0:01:19.480 --> 0:01:22.920 veterans labored against the elements and the wildlife, Mounting financial 0:01:23.000 --> 0:01:25.720 challenges from the Great Depression threatened to undercut all they'd 0:01:25.760 --> 0:01:29.360 been promised. The Australian government had initially pledged to pay 0:01:29.360 --> 0:01:32.120 the veterans four shillings per bushel of wheat, but the 0:01:32.160 --> 0:01:34.200 bill tied to that sum was killed in the Senate. 0:01:34.680 --> 0:01:38.080 Another bill proposing three shillings per bushel actually passed, but 0:01:38.120 --> 0:01:38.959 the veterans. 0:01:38.640 --> 0:01:39.280 Were never paid. 0:01:39.959 --> 0:01:42.920 At last, in nineteen thirty one, the Wheat Bounty Act 0:01:42.959 --> 0:01:45.360 made good on the government's promise to pay for wheat 0:01:45.640 --> 0:01:47.760 at the staggeringly low price of four and a half 0:01:47.840 --> 0:01:52.040 pence per bushel. Let's put this in perspective. Pence is 0:01:52.080 --> 0:01:55.280 equivalent to pennies. A shilling is twelve pence, and there 0:01:55.280 --> 0:01:58.400 are twenty shillings in a pound in today's market, one 0:01:58.440 --> 0:02:01.320 British pound is worth about a buck fifth, So these 0:02:01.400 --> 0:02:04.400 veterans were being promised smallish sums of money to start 0:02:04.560 --> 0:02:07.480 and delivered way less, originally promised a fifth of a 0:02:07.480 --> 0:02:10.120 pound per bushel and settling for just one twentieth of 0:02:10.160 --> 0:02:14.280 a pound per bushel, ten times less than what was promised. However, 0:02:14.400 --> 0:02:16.440 by this point the veterans were desperate to make money 0:02:16.480 --> 0:02:18.560 off of their wheat crops, and the stage was set 0:02:18.680 --> 0:02:22.239 for a modestly fruitful harvest. No one could have anticipated 0:02:22.280 --> 0:02:25.960 what happened next. In the annals of history, there's perhaps 0:02:25.960 --> 0:02:29.480 no stranger of foe that the Australian emu, a flightless 0:02:29.520 --> 0:02:31.480 bird that can stand about six and a half feet 0:02:31.560 --> 0:02:33.800 that's two meters tall and weigh close to one hundred 0:02:33.840 --> 0:02:37.480 pounds that's forty five kilograms. And at an even stranger 0:02:37.560 --> 0:02:40.880 battle of man with machine gun versus giant bird, the 0:02:40.919 --> 0:02:44.960 giant bird won. But in warfare it's essential to know 0:02:45.000 --> 0:02:47.560 the enemy. So let's pause and examine the bird that 0:02:47.680 --> 0:02:51.720 dogged the veterans. We spoke with Eric Slovak, bird keeper 0:02:51.800 --> 0:02:55.760 at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park. He said EMUs are 0:02:55.800 --> 0:02:58.240 solitary for the most part. They do get together in 0:02:58.280 --> 0:03:01.080 breeding seasons, but EMUs would prefer to be by themselves. 0:03:01.880 --> 0:03:05.720 The exception is when they're foraging. Slovak likens that behavior 0:03:05.760 --> 0:03:08.400 to humans going out solo to a fast food lunch. 0:03:08.639 --> 0:03:11.120 He said, you're at McDonald's around lots of people, but 0:03:11.200 --> 0:03:12.160 you're not socializing. 0:03:12.240 --> 0:03:15.000 You're just there for the food. Okay. 0:03:15.360 --> 0:03:19.040 So they're big, solitary, hungry birds. Not much of a threat. 0:03:19.120 --> 0:03:19.320 Right. 0:03:20.560 --> 0:03:24.400 Multiply that emu you're envisioning by twenty thousand. That's how 0:03:24.440 --> 0:03:28.480 many descended upon Western Australia in nineteen thirty two. Until 0:03:28.480 --> 0:03:31.080 a decade earlier, in nineteen twenty two, EMUs had been 0:03:31.120 --> 0:03:35.000 a protected species. After that time, they were reclassified as vermin. 0:03:35.680 --> 0:03:38.760 Slovak explained, they'll eat anything they can get their mouths 0:03:38.800 --> 0:03:41.760 on without hunting. They're grazers. They like nuts and berries, 0:03:41.840 --> 0:03:46.000 baby grasses, which brings us back to wheat. Yep, they'll 0:03:46.000 --> 0:03:48.840 eat that, faced with a seemingly endless buffet of it. 0:03:49.040 --> 0:03:53.040 The opportunistic birds homed in on the veterans plots beaten 0:03:53.080 --> 0:03:55.920 down by weather at a volatile financial market. The veterans 0:03:56.000 --> 0:03:59.200 leaned hard on the government. Help us, they implored, so 0:03:59.440 --> 0:04:03.080 one made GPW. Meredith wound up leading a military offensive 0:04:03.120 --> 0:04:05.920 against the EMUs, but there were a few conditions. The 0:04:06.000 --> 0:04:08.440 veterans had to foot the bill for the ammunition. Lewis 0:04:08.440 --> 0:04:11.560 machine guns were used in EMU combat, and the veterans 0:04:11.600 --> 0:04:13.600 had to provide food and lodging for the men assigned 0:04:13.640 --> 0:04:17.360 to this curious mission. As a side note, a cinematographer 0:04:17.360 --> 0:04:20.039 from Fox movie Tone accompanied the military to film the 0:04:20.080 --> 0:04:20.800 EMU effort. 0:04:21.279 --> 0:04:22.920 Historians assume the footage would have been. 0:04:22.920 --> 0:04:25.279 Used in propaganda films to illustrate how the government was 0:04:25.279 --> 0:04:28.800 aiding its veterans. But spoiler alert, the mission didn't go 0:04:28.920 --> 0:04:32.880 exactly as planned. Armed with the knowledge that a slingshot 0:04:32.920 --> 0:04:35.560 can take down an ordinary bird, you might hazard a 0:04:35.600 --> 0:04:38.000 guess that a machine gun could wipe out EMUs easily, 0:04:38.440 --> 0:04:41.799 but you would be wrong. Emos are made to run, 0:04:42.080 --> 0:04:44.560 and when shot out, they're going to panic, and they 0:04:44.600 --> 0:04:47.920 won't move in any reliable direction. And emo's legs, head, 0:04:47.920 --> 0:04:50.680 and neck move with elegant fluidity while their bodies stay 0:04:50.720 --> 0:04:54.279 parallel to the ground. Slovak explained, the body looks like 0:04:54.279 --> 0:04:56.480 a wave. The legs good left, the head goes to 0:04:56.520 --> 0:04:58.880 the right, and they run in all different directions like 0:04:59.000 --> 0:04:59.840 dropped marbles. 0:05:01.040 --> 0:05:02.680 Meredith and his men couldn't get a. 0:05:02.600 --> 0:05:04.880 Straight shot at the EMUs who stayed out of range 0:05:04.880 --> 0:05:07.640 of the machine guns, even when enterprising veterans suggested putting 0:05:07.640 --> 0:05:10.000 them on vehicles and pursuing the birds as they ran. 0:05:10.600 --> 0:05:14.120 The military wasted a ton of ammunition. Only two hundred 0:05:14.120 --> 0:05:17.280 birds of the twenty thousand were actually killed, and not 0:05:17.320 --> 0:05:19.960 only did the EMUs evade the troops, they destroyed even 0:05:19.960 --> 0:05:22.680 more farmland in the process, tearing up the ground wherever 0:05:22.680 --> 0:05:27.039 they ran. The veterans were dispirited and their land was devastated. 0:05:27.320 --> 0:05:29.640 Meredith had a lot to answer for why had so 0:05:29.760 --> 0:05:32.960 much ammunition been wasted and was the effort even humane? 0:05:33.560 --> 0:05:36.279 Then there was the matter of money. The veterans promised 0:05:36.279 --> 0:05:38.440 to pay for the ammo, but the mission ultimately failed. 0:05:38.640 --> 0:05:42.760 Could the sun be forgiven? This example of ridiculous history 0:05:42.839 --> 0:05:45.520 can't be tied up conclusively with a tidy bow, and 0:05:45.720 --> 0:05:48.359 some details such as who was ultimately held responsible for 0:05:48.360 --> 0:05:51.680 the cost of the ammunition, are unclear. We do know 0:05:51.720 --> 0:05:54.880 that the veterans learned painfully from past performance that rifles, 0:05:55.120 --> 0:05:58.360 not machine guns, were the best way to handle nuisance EMUs. 0:05:58.960 --> 0:06:01.320 They continued their war in a one to one battle 0:06:01.480 --> 0:06:04.440 Veteran against Bird, and the Australian government later placed a 0:06:04.440 --> 0:06:08.039 bounty on EMUs to help control the population. But finally 0:06:08.160 --> 0:06:10.960 we do suspect that the Fox cinematographer gots epic b 0:06:11.120 --> 0:06:20.400 roll while on location. Today's episode is based on the 0:06:20.480 --> 0:06:24.479 article Ridiculous History the EMU War on HowStuffWorks dot Com, 0:06:24.520 --> 0:06:28.000 written by Candice Gibson. Brain Stuff is production of iHeartRadio 0:06:28.040 --> 0:06:30.600 in partnership with HowStuffWorks dot Com and is produced by 0:06:30.640 --> 0:06:33.880 Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts from my heart Radio. Visit 0:06:33.920 --> 0:06:36.039 the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts 0:06:36.120 --> 0:06:38.039 Or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.