The great emu War The Great Emu War was a conflict that started in West Australia in 1932. This conflict started because of the feud between the emus and the farmers because the emus consumed all the farmer's crops. This would then bring in rodents and pests to eat the roots and seeds of the crops, so the farmers could not continue to grow these crops. After many complaints from the farmers, the government finally stepped in and sent the military to deal with the emu problem. Emus are large flightless bird that is very similar to ostriches. They are native to Australia and are generally considered a nuisance and annoyance that the farmers have to deal with in Australia, causing the military to get involved. The great emu War started because …show more content…
However, This was rescinded because the farmers continued complaining about their crops being eaten and destroyed by the emus, which kept Australia in a food deficit, forcing the government to reinstate the military to deal with the Emu problem. The army was reintroduced into the fields to continue killing the emus to help the farmers grow crops. The Lewis machine gun's continued use helped kill the pestilent bird, destroying Australia's food …show more content…
In World War 1, the Lewis machine gun was considered a phenomenal weapon that proved its Effectiveness on the battlefield. Because of the oversupply of this machine gun, the Australian government used it in its attempt to exterminate the emus during the Great Depression. Even though the Lewis machine guns had a phenomenal track record during World War I, it was tarnished in the emus' extermination. Around 20,000 emus were around at the beginning of the extermination. And by the end, there was still around $18,000 emus left, and over 10,000 rounds of ammunition were used to exterminate only 2,000 emus. This logistical problem embarrassed the Australian military in the worldwide press. Even after all the money and time spent to remove the emus from Western Australia, it did not affect crop destruction. Even though the killing of thousands of emus did not affect the crop destruction, it did affect the population and environment the emus lived in. Killing so many emails so quickly harmed the delicate ecosystem of Australia. Just as the overpopulation of the Emos had a disrupted the ecosystem of Australia, many of these killings were perceived as evil and Despicable by the media because of the destruction of the wildlife, not the military, was causing. Even though the killing of 2,000 emus occurred, there were no long-term impacts on the wildlife in Australia because of this