WEBVTT - Short Stuff: Emu Wars

0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:06.800
<v Speaker 1>Hey, and welcome to the short stuff. I'm Josh, and

0:00:06.840 --> 0:00:11.760
<v Speaker 1>there's Chuck and there's Jerry. Let's go. So do you

0:00:11.800 --> 0:00:15.080
<v Speaker 1>remember when we went to Australia on tour? Yes, I

0:00:15.160 --> 0:00:17.880
<v Speaker 1>do remember how fun that was. It was fun. It's

0:00:17.880 --> 0:00:21.160
<v Speaker 1>like it was just a dream. It was like a dream,

0:00:21.200 --> 0:00:25.119
<v Speaker 1>a good, good dream. Uh. When we were there, like

0:00:25.160 --> 0:00:26.840
<v Speaker 1>we do it um all of our live shows, we

0:00:26.920 --> 0:00:28.680
<v Speaker 1>do some Q and at the end and take questions.

0:00:29.240 --> 0:00:32.080
<v Speaker 1>And on more than one occasion and more than one city,

0:00:32.640 --> 0:00:36.240
<v Speaker 1>we had someone stand up and said, uh, something along

0:00:36.280 --> 0:00:39.800
<v Speaker 1>the lines of you should cover the emy wall, mate,

0:00:40.640 --> 0:00:44.879
<v Speaker 1>and we're like, we thought EMUs were birds, and they went,

0:00:44.960 --> 0:00:48.360
<v Speaker 1>just look it up right, So we did that and

0:00:48.440 --> 0:00:52.560
<v Speaker 1>here it is. Go okay, all right, let's go. So

0:00:53.159 --> 0:00:55.040
<v Speaker 1>to go, Chuck, we have to go back to the

0:00:55.160 --> 0:00:58.480
<v Speaker 1>end of World War One and a lot of Australian

0:00:58.560 --> 0:01:01.640
<v Speaker 1>veterans were returning from the war and the government said,

0:01:01.680 --> 0:01:04.520
<v Speaker 1>you know what, we want to show you guys how

0:01:04.560 --> 0:01:07.040
<v Speaker 1>happy we are with you, and just to say thanks,

0:01:07.360 --> 0:01:10.240
<v Speaker 1>We're gonna set you up with a bunch of acres

0:01:10.280 --> 0:01:12.920
<v Speaker 1>of farmland and you can start farming. And not only

0:01:12.920 --> 0:01:15.679
<v Speaker 1>can you start farming, if you grow wheat, we'll buy

0:01:15.720 --> 0:01:19.200
<v Speaker 1>it from you at ridiculous prices. So basically, we're setting

0:01:19.240 --> 0:01:21.360
<v Speaker 1>you up to go set up a life for yourself

0:01:21.640 --> 0:01:25.200
<v Speaker 1>as farmers here in Australia. And it sounded pretty great, right,

0:01:25.240 --> 0:01:27.480
<v Speaker 1>Like all the veterans were like, yeah, let's let's do that.

0:01:28.200 --> 0:01:30.560
<v Speaker 1>Give us some land. And that's where the first problem

0:01:30.640 --> 0:01:33.280
<v Speaker 1>comes in. Yeah, because they didn't have enough land. They

0:01:33.280 --> 0:01:35.240
<v Speaker 1>didn't know. I don't know if they didn't think they

0:01:35.240 --> 0:01:37.039
<v Speaker 1>would as many would take them up on it, or

0:01:37.080 --> 0:01:41.199
<v Speaker 1>if they didn't count right, but they had about uh

0:01:41.319 --> 0:01:47.520
<v Speaker 1>two hundred close to two acres of land to split

0:01:47.600 --> 0:01:53.160
<v Speaker 1>between five thousand soldiers. Um. It was doled out in order. Um.

0:01:53.160 --> 0:01:56.680
<v Speaker 1>Obviously the best stuff went away first and then uh,

0:01:56.720 --> 0:01:58.000
<v Speaker 1>if you're at the end of the line, you got

0:01:58.040 --> 0:02:01.600
<v Speaker 1>your land in Perth, which sound like a dig I

0:02:01.680 --> 0:02:03.600
<v Speaker 1>love Perth. I thought it was great. It was much

0:02:03.640 --> 0:02:06.120
<v Speaker 1>different than I thought. It was pretty amazing. But it's

0:02:06.120 --> 0:02:09.800
<v Speaker 1>apparently not great for farming, right, it's not great for farming.

0:02:09.880 --> 0:02:13.840
<v Speaker 1>They're also rabbit infestations. UM. I believe there's also a

0:02:13.880 --> 0:02:17.720
<v Speaker 1>drought in Western Australia, which is where Perth is. Um.

0:02:17.800 --> 0:02:22.400
<v Speaker 1>So all of this happens right after um, the government

0:02:22.440 --> 0:02:25.520
<v Speaker 1>agrees like to set all of their veterans up like this,

0:02:25.560 --> 0:02:30.320
<v Speaker 1>So it looks really bad that immediately there's hardships associated

0:02:30.360 --> 0:02:35.200
<v Speaker 1>with this kind of government doll dole plant right. Um.

0:02:35.320 --> 0:02:39.240
<v Speaker 1>Then the Great Depression ends up hitting. But as it's hitting,

0:02:39.240 --> 0:02:42.240
<v Speaker 1>there debating exactly how much they're gonna pay for this

0:02:42.320 --> 0:02:44.799
<v Speaker 1>wheat that their veterans are going to grow for them,

0:02:44.840 --> 0:02:46.880
<v Speaker 1>and it starts out really really generous. They say like

0:02:46.919 --> 0:02:52.760
<v Speaker 1>four shillings, which is right per bushel. I'm sorry, no

0:02:52.960 --> 0:02:55.720
<v Speaker 1>per piece of wheat um, which is at the time

0:02:55.720 --> 0:02:57.639
<v Speaker 1>that was pretty good price for a bushel of wheat,

0:02:57.680 --> 0:03:00.520
<v Speaker 1>and it was like government subsidized wheat. And then the

0:03:00.520 --> 0:03:02.280
<v Speaker 1>government said, yeah, we're not going to do that. Let's

0:03:02.280 --> 0:03:04.280
<v Speaker 1>try again, and they came up with another bill and

0:03:04.320 --> 0:03:07.400
<v Speaker 1>they said three shillings. He said, okay, that's still pretty good,

0:03:07.560 --> 0:03:11.600
<v Speaker 1>and they finally settled and in nine at four and

0:03:11.600 --> 0:03:15.720
<v Speaker 1>a half pence, And there's not many pence and a shilling,

0:03:16.120 --> 0:03:19.800
<v Speaker 1>so that was a pretty steep reduction between four shillings

0:03:19.840 --> 0:03:22.480
<v Speaker 1>down to four and a halfpence per per bushel. So

0:03:22.520 --> 0:03:25.520
<v Speaker 1>that's kind of like they're starting to add insult on

0:03:25.560 --> 0:03:28.800
<v Speaker 1>to injury. Now, all right, so park that to the

0:03:28.840 --> 0:03:31.280
<v Speaker 1>side and we'll tell you a little bit about the

0:03:31.320 --> 0:03:35.200
<v Speaker 1>Australian emu, which um I saw on a couple of

0:03:35.200 --> 0:03:40.520
<v Speaker 1>my little uh adventure trips. I'm sure you did as well.

0:03:41.200 --> 0:03:44.240
<v Speaker 1>They are um. I mean a dumb American might say

0:03:44.280 --> 0:03:46.480
<v Speaker 1>it looks like an Ostrich. That was about to say

0:03:46.480 --> 0:03:50.200
<v Speaker 1>it looks like an Ostrich. Yeah, we're dumb Americans. Let's

0:03:50.200 --> 0:03:51.840
<v Speaker 1>say this. It looks more like an Ostrich than it

0:03:51.840 --> 0:03:56.400
<v Speaker 1>looks like a cardinal. Right, way to save us, chuck. Uh.

0:03:56.440 --> 0:03:58.440
<v Speaker 1>They're you know, they're tall. They're about six six and

0:03:58.440 --> 0:04:01.040
<v Speaker 1>a half feet tall, depending they can weigh up to

0:04:01.080 --> 0:04:04.040
<v Speaker 1>a hundred pounds or more. They kind of do their

0:04:04.040 --> 0:04:06.600
<v Speaker 1>own thing for the most part. Uh. They get together

0:04:06.680 --> 0:04:08.840
<v Speaker 1>to breed, but they really don't like to be around

0:04:08.840 --> 0:04:13.520
<v Speaker 1>other EMUs usually except when they go off and get food.

0:04:13.640 --> 0:04:17.320
<v Speaker 1>They're they're grazers and they will graze together, but they're

0:04:17.320 --> 0:04:20.240
<v Speaker 1>all like, they're all just sort of in the same

0:04:20.360 --> 0:04:23.279
<v Speaker 1>area grazing. They're not like forming a pack or forming

0:04:23.320 --> 0:04:26.599
<v Speaker 1>a bond or anything like. Uh. They're just hungry and

0:04:26.640 --> 0:04:29.360
<v Speaker 1>they're big, and they like to hang out generally by

0:04:29.400 --> 0:04:34.920
<v Speaker 1>themselves unless you've got tons and tons of new wheat

0:04:34.960 --> 0:04:39.000
<v Speaker 1>fields in Western Australia. Yeah, they'll they'll eat just about anything,

0:04:39.040 --> 0:04:41.200
<v Speaker 1>but that. You know, if they have a plentiful supply

0:04:41.279 --> 0:04:43.680
<v Speaker 1>of wheat, you can attract a lot of emuse with

0:04:43.720 --> 0:04:46.039
<v Speaker 1>a lot of wheat. And so all of a sudden

0:04:46.360 --> 0:04:49.240
<v Speaker 1>there's a big old supply of wheat in Western Australia

0:04:49.279 --> 0:04:51.840
<v Speaker 1>because all these veterans showed up and started growing it there.

0:04:52.320 --> 0:04:54.680
<v Speaker 1>And so the emu started to come and they started

0:04:54.680 --> 0:04:58.520
<v Speaker 1>to eat this wheat. And the veterans said, whoa, whoa, whoa, emuse,

0:04:58.640 --> 0:05:01.560
<v Speaker 1>this is my wheat. I'm growing this because the government

0:05:01.640 --> 0:05:05.080
<v Speaker 1>is going to pay me for it, um and you said,

0:05:05.120 --> 0:05:07.560
<v Speaker 1>we don't care. We're gonna eat your eat anyway. And

0:05:07.640 --> 0:05:10.440
<v Speaker 1>all of a sudden, the first shot in what would

0:05:10.440 --> 0:05:14.839
<v Speaker 1>become the Emu War was fired by the EMUs. And

0:05:14.880 --> 0:05:30.680
<v Speaker 1>we'll come back right after this to finish this ridiculous story.

0:05:32.240 --> 0:05:35.520
<v Speaker 1>If you want to know then you're in luck. Just

0:05:35.920 --> 0:05:45.280
<v Speaker 1>listen to don't chuck self shore. All right. So it's

0:05:47.240 --> 0:05:50.679
<v Speaker 1>these veterans are growing wheat in Western Australia and twenty

0:05:50.720 --> 0:05:54.640
<v Speaker 1>tho EMUs seen nothing basically but a big wheat buffet

0:05:54.640 --> 0:05:57.920
<v Speaker 1>in front of their faces, and so they descend upon

0:05:57.960 --> 0:06:03.440
<v Speaker 1>Western Australia. The veterans are like, um, it's out of control.

0:06:03.640 --> 0:06:06.479
<v Speaker 1>I don't know if anyone's noticed, but we actually need

0:06:06.600 --> 0:06:10.120
<v Speaker 1>help government. You gave us this land, you're not paying

0:06:10.200 --> 0:06:12.880
<v Speaker 1>us well for it, and now these EMUs are eating

0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:15.120
<v Speaker 1>at all and that this is gonna be a big

0:06:15.120 --> 0:06:18.560
<v Speaker 1>problem for the country if Western Australia is tanked all

0:06:18.560 --> 0:06:21.800
<v Speaker 1>of a sudden economically because of these EMUs. And so

0:06:21.839 --> 0:06:25.640
<v Speaker 1>the army, under the direction of Major General P. W. Meredith,

0:06:25.720 --> 0:06:29.320
<v Speaker 1>said let's go kill a bunch of EMUs, right right,

0:06:29.400 --> 0:06:32.400
<v Speaker 1>because so like this is this is a problem that

0:06:32.560 --> 0:06:37.280
<v Speaker 1>has kind of saddled um the Western Australia veterans who

0:06:37.279 --> 0:06:40.920
<v Speaker 1>are growing weed out there. But it's also a really

0:06:41.080 --> 0:06:43.880
<v Speaker 1>big opportunity for the government to show just how much

0:06:43.920 --> 0:06:46.680
<v Speaker 1>they care about their veterans. They're gonna send the army

0:06:46.720 --> 0:06:49.560
<v Speaker 1>out to take care of this emu problem. And so

0:06:49.640 --> 0:06:52.320
<v Speaker 1>the government saw it is enough of a propaganda move

0:06:52.680 --> 0:06:56.400
<v Speaker 1>that they actually sent out at Fox movietone news cameraman

0:06:56.520 --> 0:07:00.320
<v Speaker 1>to film this whole thing to be used as propaganda

0:07:00.360 --> 0:07:02.400
<v Speaker 1>to show what the government's doing and I guess because

0:07:02.400 --> 0:07:05.000
<v Speaker 1>they assumed that most Australians would want to see twenty

0:07:05.000 --> 0:07:07.720
<v Speaker 1>thousand EMU slaughtered by machine guns. They would, so they

0:07:07.760 --> 0:07:11.120
<v Speaker 1>sent somebody to go film this, this massacre. Yeah, but

0:07:11.200 --> 0:07:13.240
<v Speaker 1>this was all under There was a deal to be

0:07:13.280 --> 0:07:14.720
<v Speaker 1>made and they said, all right, we'll do this. We'll

0:07:14.720 --> 0:07:18.120
<v Speaker 1>help you out, but you gotta pay for the ammunition veterans,

0:07:18.800 --> 0:07:21.440
<v Speaker 1>and you got to provide food and lodging for these soldiers.

0:07:21.880 --> 0:07:24.800
<v Speaker 1>And the veterans said what the veterans said, all right,

0:07:24.840 --> 0:07:29.600
<v Speaker 1>I guess we have no choice, so sure we'll do that. Um.

0:07:29.720 --> 0:07:33.200
<v Speaker 1>Here's the other thing about the EMU. If you get

0:07:33.240 --> 0:07:35.680
<v Speaker 1>a gun out and you start shooting at them, they're

0:07:35.720 --> 0:07:39.040
<v Speaker 1>gonna stop grazing and they are going to go berserk

0:07:40.120 --> 0:07:42.680
<v Speaker 1>right right, because remember they don't actually have much of

0:07:42.720 --> 0:07:45.320
<v Speaker 1>like a society or a pack or anything like that,

0:07:45.360 --> 0:07:49.440
<v Speaker 1>so they're not coordinating. It's just every EMU for itself

0:07:49.480 --> 0:07:51.880
<v Speaker 1>all of a sudden. And if you have twenty thousand

0:07:51.920 --> 0:07:55.720
<v Speaker 1>of them doing every EMU for themselves, yes, it's like

0:07:55.760 --> 0:07:59.000
<v Speaker 1>what you said, it's they go berserk. Yeah. So there, Um,

0:07:59.040 --> 0:08:02.440
<v Speaker 1>it's a big problem. You've got machine guns. These emu's

0:08:02.600 --> 0:08:05.080
<v Speaker 1>twenty thousand of them are are It's not like they're

0:08:05.080 --> 0:08:08.080
<v Speaker 1>all packed in a couple of wheat fields. They're spread

0:08:08.080 --> 0:08:13.360
<v Speaker 1>all over Western Australia. They're all over the place. They're running. Uh.

0:08:13.440 --> 0:08:18.120
<v Speaker 1>It's crazy town that these EMUs are running everywhere like uh,

0:08:18.360 --> 0:08:22.080
<v Speaker 1>crazy birds with their gangly legs and there. I mean,

0:08:22.120 --> 0:08:24.239
<v Speaker 1>have you ever seen an EMI run. It's pretty funny looking.

0:08:24.560 --> 0:08:27.680
<v Speaker 1>I've seen an Ostrich run. It's probably close, you know,

0:08:27.760 --> 0:08:32.280
<v Speaker 1>more like more the same than a Carlinal cardinal running. Uh.

0:08:32.320 --> 0:08:34.720
<v Speaker 1>And if you've got a machine gun, you're just spraying

0:08:34.760 --> 0:08:38.680
<v Speaker 1>bullets basically hoping that you're gonna hit an EMU. There's

0:08:38.679 --> 0:08:42.280
<v Speaker 1>no like take aim and fire. They're just like shooting

0:08:42.360 --> 0:08:46.680
<v Speaker 1>that direction. And the result is they're not killing many

0:08:46.679 --> 0:08:49.560
<v Speaker 1>of these things at all. No. No, I mean they

0:08:49.640 --> 0:08:52.080
<v Speaker 1>were surprised to find that they might as well have

0:08:52.120 --> 0:08:55.480
<v Speaker 1>been deployed to go shoot at a b problem with

0:08:55.600 --> 0:08:58.880
<v Speaker 1>machine guns for the effect it was having on the EMUs.

0:08:58.920 --> 0:09:02.760
<v Speaker 1>They were just the emails were basically indestructible, it turned out,

0:09:03.000 --> 0:09:05.640
<v Speaker 1>not because they could withstand a bullet, but because they

0:09:05.640 --> 0:09:08.240
<v Speaker 1>were just they were moving too quick and too bersik

0:09:08.320 --> 0:09:12.680
<v Speaker 1>to get hit by a bull bullet. You know, they're like,

0:09:12.720 --> 0:09:14.440
<v Speaker 1>I put three bullets into this thing, but it just

0:09:14.480 --> 0:09:18.080
<v Speaker 1>made them angry. It didn't even break eye contact. So

0:09:18.160 --> 0:09:20.440
<v Speaker 1>they had these machine guns are jamming. They didn't have

0:09:20.480 --> 0:09:23.720
<v Speaker 1>a lot of guns. Uh. You know, it's a problem

0:09:23.760 --> 0:09:28.079
<v Speaker 1>if they're worried about the cost of ammunition to begin with. Uh.

0:09:28.120 --> 0:09:31.680
<v Speaker 1>They stage multiple offenses over the course of about six days,

0:09:32.240 --> 0:09:36.360
<v Speaker 1>none of which were very effective, and media coverage starts

0:09:36.400 --> 0:09:39.679
<v Speaker 1>pouring in. It's not a very good look. Uh So

0:09:39.840 --> 0:09:42.720
<v Speaker 1>six days later they kind of bail on that stage

0:09:42.760 --> 0:09:45.800
<v Speaker 1>another attempt a few weeks later that was not much

0:09:45.840 --> 0:09:49.240
<v Speaker 1>more successful. I mean, we're talking about killing a few

0:09:49.320 --> 0:09:53.080
<v Speaker 1>hundred birds out of right, and they were apportioned ten

0:09:53.160 --> 0:09:57.840
<v Speaker 1>thousand rounds of ammunition. They used hundred rounds just to

0:09:57.920 --> 0:10:02.000
<v Speaker 1>kill two hundred was in EMUs. So they were pretty

0:10:02.000 --> 0:10:05.240
<v Speaker 1>surprised that that. Like, when those numbers started coming in

0:10:05.600 --> 0:10:07.520
<v Speaker 1>and the rest of Australia heard about this, it did

0:10:07.520 --> 0:10:10.040
<v Speaker 1>not look very good for the military. No, it did

0:10:10.040 --> 0:10:12.679
<v Speaker 1>not look look good. And even at the at the time,

0:10:12.880 --> 0:10:15.840
<v Speaker 1>and even in Australia at the time, it wasn't a

0:10:15.880 --> 0:10:20.240
<v Speaker 1>good look for the army to be slaughtering birds. Sure,

0:10:20.280 --> 0:10:22.760
<v Speaker 1>even though they had been classified as vermin at the time,

0:10:22.800 --> 0:10:24.839
<v Speaker 1>I think most people were like, what are you guys doing.

0:10:25.000 --> 0:10:27.559
<v Speaker 1>I'm glad the EMUs are winning. So people started rooting

0:10:27.600 --> 0:10:31.120
<v Speaker 1>for the EMUs. Yeah, so there's uh, it's it's pretty

0:10:31.200 --> 0:10:33.600
<v Speaker 1>much a big disaster. Um. Like I said, they had

0:10:33.640 --> 0:10:35.880
<v Speaker 1>a couple of offenses they mounted. None of them were

0:10:35.880 --> 0:10:41.760
<v Speaker 1>super successful. Uh, they eventually just stopped. Basically, the EMUs

0:10:41.840 --> 0:10:45.800
<v Speaker 1>won the War of the EMUs right for the for

0:10:45.880 --> 0:10:49.160
<v Speaker 1>then for for the time being, at least with the military.

0:10:49.360 --> 0:10:52.840
<v Speaker 1>After that, the farmers in Western Australia said, um, we'll

0:10:52.880 --> 0:10:55.439
<v Speaker 1>just take care of this ourselves, and so they found

0:10:55.480 --> 0:10:59.400
<v Speaker 1>that just using a UM single shot rifle was much

0:10:59.440 --> 0:11:02.360
<v Speaker 1>more effect active, so much so that within a few months,

0:11:02.360 --> 0:11:06.120
<v Speaker 1>something like fifty thousand EMUs had been killed in Western

0:11:06.200 --> 0:11:10.240
<v Speaker 1>Australia by gun, just not machine gun. Yeah. And you

0:11:10.240 --> 0:11:14.000
<v Speaker 1>know what really helped was in when they started to

0:11:14.000 --> 0:11:19.000
<v Speaker 1>build fences around these farms. Helped a lot. Um that.

0:11:19.200 --> 0:11:21.800
<v Speaker 1>It didn't help though, that the army had actually broken

0:11:21.840 --> 0:11:24.520
<v Speaker 1>one of the fences they while they were still shooting

0:11:24.520 --> 0:11:27.160
<v Speaker 1>at the EMUs. They had mounted a machine gun onto

0:11:27.160 --> 0:11:31.559
<v Speaker 1>the back of a car. Yes, and we're riding along

0:11:31.640 --> 0:11:34.560
<v Speaker 1>and I guess they ran over an EMU and it

0:11:34.640 --> 0:11:36.600
<v Speaker 1>got caught up in one of the axles so that

0:11:36.640 --> 0:11:40.439
<v Speaker 1>they couldn't steer, and they drove through somebody's fence, which

0:11:40.480 --> 0:11:42.400
<v Speaker 1>made all the papers as well, because that was a

0:11:42.440 --> 0:11:48.560
<v Speaker 1>big part of the EMU wars too que yakety sax exactly. Apparently,

0:11:48.559 --> 0:11:50.760
<v Speaker 1>the people in Western Australia asked for assistance from the

0:11:50.800 --> 0:11:53.880
<v Speaker 1>government again for EMUs in thirty four, forty three, and

0:11:54.000 --> 0:11:58.040
<v Speaker 1>forty eight, and each time the government and army said no, no, no,

0:11:58.120 --> 0:12:01.360
<v Speaker 1>we're not going down that road again. But the and

0:12:01.400 --> 0:12:04.080
<v Speaker 1>the email said can you guys just please leave us alone?

0:12:04.880 --> 0:12:08.120
<v Speaker 1>And the government finally said yes and protected them once more.

0:12:08.240 --> 0:12:10.960
<v Speaker 1>They were no longer vermin. So we'll say this is

0:12:11.000 --> 0:12:15.520
<v Speaker 1>a happy ending. I guess not if you're an email,

0:12:15.600 --> 0:12:19.000
<v Speaker 1>but sure, I got nothing else, all right. That's it.

0:12:19.120 --> 0:12:24.120
<v Speaker 1>Short stuff. Stuff you should Know is a production of

0:12:24.160 --> 0:12:27.080
<v Speaker 1>iHeart Radios How Stuff Works. For more podcasts for my

0:12:27.160 --> 0:12:30.120
<v Speaker 1>heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or

0:12:30.160 --> 0:12:31.840
<v Speaker 1>wherever you listen to your favorite shows.