Talk:What was the Emu War?

The Emu War, also known as the Great Emu War,was a nuisance wildlife management military operation undertaken in Australia over the latter part of 1932 to address public concern over the number of emus said to be running amok in the Campion district of Western Australia.

The unsuccessful attempts to curb the population of emus, a large flightless bird indigenous to Australia, employed soldiers armed with Lewis guns—leading the media to adopt the name "Emu War" when referring to the incident.

Read more...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emu_War

Machine guns sent against Emu pest
A party of Lewis gunners has again been sent to the Campion district to exterminate emus, which have caused serious damage to crops.

The officer in charge of the party received orders from military head-quarters in Sydney for 100 emu skins, the feathers of which will be used for hats worn by light horsemen.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/rendition/nla.news-article2315329.txt

Attack on Emus
Minister Approves of Resumption.

CANBERRA, Friday.—The machine-gun attack on the emus which have been ravaging crops in Western Australia has been resumed. The Minister for Defence (Sir George Pearce) said to-day that, acting on press reports of the use of personnel of the military forces with machine-guns, which had been provided at the request of the State Government of Western Australia, and of farmers whose crops were being spoilt be the incursion of large numbers of emus into the outer fringe of the wheat belt,

he had withdrawn the party. He had since received a report from the base commandant, Perth, which indicated that 300 emus had been killed, and strong representations had been made by the premier of Western Australia (Sir James Mitchell), and also by the farmers, that, owing to the hot weather and the absence of water in the interior, the emus were appearing in thousands. Knowing, as he did, the tremendous dam-age that these birds could cause in a standing crop, and with a desire to save the loss to the farmers, he had approved of the party returning to the wheat belt.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/rendition/nla.news-article4508317.txt