Level B1

The Great Emu War

When Australia Lost to Birds

In 1932 the Australian army went to war against twenty thousand emus. Sean tells Olivia how it went.

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Key words

These words appear in the episode. In the transcript, hover over or tap a highlighted word to see what it means.

headlinenoun

The large title at the top of a news story.

The headline said the town had won the lottery, but the article told a different story.

surviveverb

To stay alive after something dangerous or very difficult.

My grandmother's old car survived three winters without a garage.

cropsnoun

Plants that farmers grow for food, like wheat or corn.

A late frost damaged the apple crops in our valley this spring.

fencenoun

A low wall of wood or wire around a field or garden.

Our dog found a hole in the fence and went to visit the neighbours.

in chargephrase

Having control of a group of people or a situation.

Who is in charge of the music at the party tonight?

target practicenoun

Shooting at something again and again to get better at hitting it.

The archery club opens its field for target practice every Sunday morning.

ambushnoun

A surprise attack from a hidden place.

The kids hid behind the sofa and planned an ambush with water balloons.

jamverb

When a machine gets stuck and suddenly stops working.

The printer jammed five minutes before my presentation.

bumpyadjective

Not smooth, so you move up and down a lot.

The bus ride to the village was so bumpy that I couldn't read my book.

lookoutnoun

Someone who watches for danger while the others do something else.

While the others swam, Jack stayed on the rocks as the lookout for jellyfish.

injurynoun

Damage to the body of a person or an animal.

She missed the final match because of a knee injury.

claimverb

To say that something is true, even when other people can't check it.

My uncle claims he once met a famous singer at a bus stop.

Did you understand?

Choose the correct answer.

1. Why did many of the farmers have land in Western Australia?

2. What did the farmers pay for?

3. What happened near the dam, when the soldiers saw more than a thousand emus?

4. Why didn't the machine gun on the truck work well?

5. What helped the farmers most in the end?

Exercise 1

Two truths and a lie

Each group has two true sentences about the story and one lie. Find the lie.

1 / 4

2 / 4

3 / 4

4 / 4

Exercise 2

Code breaker

Write the word from the list for each clue. The pink letters spell the name Olivia gave to someone in the story.

1. Someone who watches for danger while the others eat.

2. The big title on top of a news story.

3. To stay alive after something very dangerous.

4. Damage to your body, for example after an accident.

5. A low wall of wire or wood around a field.

Who is it?

Exercise 3

Your turn

Imagine you are a farmer near Campion in 1932. What would you try against the emus? Write three or four sentences. Use at least two words from the list.

Your text is saved on this device.

I would not call the army, because soldiers know nothing about farms. First, I would build a taller fence around my crops. Then my son would be the lookout at night. If the emus still came, I would claim money from the government for every bird.

Full transcript

Show the transcript

Olivia

Hold on. The army actually brought machine guns?

Sean

Two machine guns and ten thousand bullets.

Olivia

Against how many birds?

Sean

About twenty thousand emus.

Olivia

And let me guess. The emus won.

Sean

This is Aprendos English, level B1. I'm Sean.

Olivia

And I'm Olivia.

Sean

Olivia, I've been waiting all week to tell you this one. Have you heard of the Great Emu War?

Olivia

I know the name. I always thought it was an internet joke.

Sean

Most people do. It happened in Western Australia in 1932. There are army reports and old newspaper stories. It's all real.

Olivia

Okay, but I have a problem already. "Australia lost a war to birds" sounds like a clickbait .

Sean

It is a headline. It's also basically true.

Olivia

Basically. I'm a journalist, Sean. I hate the word "basically."

Sean

Fine. Give me fifteen minutes, and then you can judge.

Olivia

Deal. So who starts a war with birds?

Sean

Farmers. We have to go back a bit first, though. After the First World War, thousands of soldiers came home.

Olivia

And they needed jobs.

Sean

Exactly. So the government gave many of them land in Western Australia. The plan was to grow wheat and build a new life.

Olivia

That sounds nice, actually.

Sean

It sounds nice. But the land was dry and hard to work. Much of it was wild bush before they arrived.

Olivia

Let me guess. Then the Depression arrived.

Sean

In 1929, yes. Wheat prices fell badly. The government promised to help with prices…

Olivia

…and the help never came.

Sean

Not by 1932, no.

Olivia

Oh, those poor guys. They a war, and then this.

Sean

My dad knew that feeling a bit. He was a coal miner in Yorkshire, and he watched his whole industry disappear. You work hard, and the ground moves under your feet.

Olivia

That must be hard to watch as a kid.

Sean

It was. Anyway, the farmers are already in trouble. And then, after the breeding season, the emus start to move.

Olivia

Move where?

Sean

Emus travel from the dry inland areas toward the coast. And suddenly there was all this lovely farmland in the way. The farmers had water for their animals, and fields full of wheat.

Olivia

So for the emus it was basically a free buffet.

Sean

You said "basically."

Olivia

That's different. I'm not writing headlines.

Sean

Around twenty thousand emus came into the area near a small place called Campion. They ate the and pushed through the …

Olivia

…and then the rabbits got in too?

Sean

How did you know that?

Olivia

I didn't! I just know rabbits are always a problem in Australia.

Sean

Well, you're right. The emus left big holes in the fences, and the rabbits came in after them.

Olivia

Okay, I understand these farmers a little. I have a tiny vegetable garden at home. Last summer the crows ate every single strawberry.

Sean

And did you call the army?

Olivia

I thought about it. Seriously.

Sean

So you're on the farmers' side.

Olivia

For now. Quick question, though. How big is an emu, really? In my head it's a big chicken.

Sean

Oh, you're very wrong there.

Olivia

No, wait, I know this one. They can be over six feet tall. And they can run about thirty miles an hour.

Sean

So why were you picturing a chicken?

Olivia

Because I forgot for a second! They have dinosaur legs, Sean. Scary legs.

Sean

Right then. So the farmers are angry, and many of them are ex-soldiers. What did they learn about in the war?

Olivia

Uh-oh. Machine guns.

Sean

Machine guns. A group of them went to the Minister of Defence…

Olivia

…and asked him for soldiers.

Sean

Soldiers with machine guns, yes. The minister was Sir George Pearce.

Olivia

And he said no, obviously.

Sean

He said yes.

Olivia

He said yes? Why?

Sean

Pearce thought the birds would be good for the army. Some historians also think the government wanted to look helpful to farmers in the west.

Olivia

Target practice. With real, running targets.

Sean

Very fast, running targets. So they made a deal. The army sent the men and the guns. The farmers gave them food and a place to sleep. And they also paid for the bullets.

Olivia

Wait, the farmers paid for the bullets?

Sean

They did.

Olivia

Okay, now I'm worried about the farmers' money.

Sean

You should be. The man was Major Meredith, from the Royal Australian Artillery. He had two men with him, a sergeant and a gunner.

Olivia

Three men against twenty thousand birds.

Sean

When you say it like that...

Olivia

I'm just saying the numbers, Sean. That's journalism.

Sean

Right. They planned to start in October, but it rained. The rain spread the emus out over a much bigger area. So the war really began on the second of November, 1932.

Olivia

Okay. Day one. What happens?

Sean

They see about fifty emus. The farmers try to push them toward the guns, like an .

Olivia

And the emus walk right into it. Game over.

Sean

Not quite. The birds split into small groups and run off in every direction.

Olivia

Oh, they're clever.

Sean

Or just lucky. They only hit a few that day. Two days later comes the big moment. Near a dam, they see more than a thousand emus.

Olivia

A thousand? Okay, this is it. This is where the emus lose.

Sean

Meredith waits until the birds come really close. Then they start firing…

Olivia

…and?

Sean

They kill twelve. And then the gun .

Olivia

No! Twelve?

Sean

Twelve birds. The rest just ran away.

Olivia

I'm sorry, but I'm on Team Emu now.

Sean

What happened to your strawberries? You were on the farmers' side five minutes ago.

Olivia

The crows are the bad guys in that story. The emus are just hungry.

Sean

That makes no sense at all.

Olivia

It makes perfect sense to me.

Sean

Then Meredith has a new idea. He puts one machine gun on the back of a truck.

Olivia

Oh, a car chase! I love it.

Sean

It sounds great in your head. But the ground was rough, and the emus were too fast. The truck couldn't catch them…

Olivia

…thirty miles an hour. I told you.

Sean

Yes, yes. And the ride was so that the gunner couldn't shoot anyway.

Olivia

So he's bouncing around in a truck with a machine gun. And he's chasing a bird that's faster than him.

Sean

Pretty much.

Olivia

Honestly, that's better than most action movies.

Sean

And then an army observer noticed something strange. Each group of emus seemed to have its own leader.

Olivia

Wait. A leader?

Sean

A big bird with black feathers, about six feet high. He kept watch while the others ate. When the soldiers came near, he warned the group.

Olivia

They had a ! I'm calling him Kevin.

Sean

Why Kevin?

Olivia

He looks like a Kevin. He's tall, and he never takes a day off.

Sean

Fine. Kevin. So after six days, they've fired about two and a half thousand rounds.

Olivia

Okay, let me guess the result. Maybe a thousand…

Sean

…oh, nowhere near. To be fair, nobody really knows. The numbers go from about fifty birds to a few hundred.

Olivia

That's a huge difference.

Sean

It is. The newspapers said only a few birds died. And on the eighth of November, Pearce took the soldiers and the guns away.

Olivia

And this is where I come in, actually. Because I read about the politics.

Sean

Go on then.

Olivia

So the politicians in Canberra loved this. One MP asked the Prime Minister, Joseph Lyons, if the soldiers would get a medal.

Sean

Brilliant.

Olivia

And a senator started calling Pearce "the Minister of the Emu War." Imagine that on your business card.

Sean

That's rather cruel.

Olivia

Cruel, but good. Some people in Britain were upset too. Bird protection groups there said Australia was killing a rare bird.

Sean

Rare? There were twenty thousand of them in one area.

Olivia

Well, they didn't know that in London! Anyway, the war is over. Emus one, army zero.

Sean

Not so fast.

Olivia

No. They didn't.

Sean

They did. The farmers kept complaining, and the emus were still eating…

Olivia

…everything. Of course they were.

Sean

The Premier of Western Australia supported the farmers too. So a few days later, the army went back.

Olivia

With more soldiers this time, right? A proper…

Sean

Same major, same guns. They were back in the fields on the thirteenth of November.

Olivia

Doing the same thing and hoping for a different result. My old editor had a word for that.

Sean

Well, it went a bit better this time. In the first two days they got about forty birds.

Olivia

Forty. Out of twenty thousand.

Sean

I didn't say it went well. I said better. By early December, they were killing about a hundred a week.

Olivia

Were the birds easy to hit, at least?

Sean

Not really. Some reports said the emus got hit and just kept running. Serious didn't seem to stop them.

Olivia

Great. So they're fast and bulletproof.

Sean

Nearly bulletproof. So on the tenth of December the army called Meredith back, and he wrote a report. Guess how many emus he .

Olivia

Hmm... five thousand?

Sean

Nine hundred and eighty-six.

Olivia

Okay, that's a lot less. And how many bullets did they use?

Sean

Nine thousand, eight hundred and sixty.

Olivia

Wait, that's exactly…

Sean

Ten bullets for every bird. Yes.

Olivia

That's a very neat number. Too neat, maybe.

Sean

He also said about two and a half thousand more birds died later from their injuries.

Olivia

Can anyone check that?

Sean

No. Historians think that number is probably far too high.

Olivia

See? This is why I don't trust neat numbers. Or headlines.

Sean

But Meredith did say something nice about the emus. He talked about how many bullets they could take.

Olivia

He's a fan!

Sean

A big fan. He said an army with soldiers like these birds could face any army in the world. And he compared them to tanks.

Olivia

Tanks with feathers. And Kevin on lookout.

Sean

So, Olivia. Fifteen minutes later. Did Australia lose a war to birds?

Olivia

Hmm... The army left twice, and the emus stayed. So yes, I think the birds won.

Sean

So the headline was true.

Olivia

The headline was lucky. That's different.

Sean

Journalists.

Olivia

But seriously, I feel bad for the farmers. They lost their crops, and they paid for all those bullets.

Sean

And it didn't really stop there. The farmers asked for the army three more times, the last time in 1948.

Olivia

And?

Sean

The answer was no every time. The government kept paying people for dead emus instead. In 1934, people claimed over fifty-seven thousand of those payments in just six months.

Olivia

Wow. So the farmers did more than the army ever did.

Sean

Much more. Later, they also built long fences to keep emus and rabbits out.

Olivia

So in the end, a fence won the war.

Sean

Quite possibly. And emus are still doing fine today. There are plenty of them in Australia.

Olivia

Good for Kevin.

Sean

Kevin is almost certainly dead, Olivia. This was in…

Olivia

…in 1932, I know. Kevin's great-great-grandchildren, then.

Sean

Fair enough. Now, folks, imagine you're one of those farmers in 1932. What would you try against Kevin's family? Leave your plan in the comments.

Olivia

The whole story is written out in a free PDF, with the useful vocabulary too. There's a link in the description box.

Sean

We've got a long list of strange true stories still to tell, so subscribe if you want them.

Olivia

Bye for now!

Sean

Cheers. See you.

Olivia

Oh, one more thing. The emu is on Australia's coat of arms, partly because emus can't easily walk backwards.

Sean

Unlike the army, who walked backwards twice.

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