The war Australian soldiers didn't win

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We went to a quiz once and one of the questions was: When did Australia engage in a war on its own land and who did we fight against? The answer makes interesting reading. In 1932, during a drought, an unusually large migration of emus invaded the Campion district just north of Westonia in Western Australia. The area was mainly settled by World War I veterans. The land was marginal and many soldier settlers had already walked off their farms. In an effort to assist the farmers, three members of the Royal Australian Artillery were assigned to cull 20,000 emus. In command of the party was Maj. Gwynydd Purves Wynne-Aubrey Meredith (how’s that for a name), along with Sgt. S. McMurray, and Gunner J. O’Halloran. The group had two Lewis automatic machine guns and 10,000 rounds of ammunition. They were accompanied by a cinematographer. On November 2, the soldiers opened fire on a small group of emus but they (the emus, not the soldiers) scattered in all directions. Two days later, they ambushed thousands of emus at a water source but one of the guns jammed and again the emus scattered. They tried chasing the meus with trucks but over the rough terrain the emus were faster than the trucks. Emus have tough hides and a glancing bullet rarely caused much harm. In the two months of the operation, it was estimated that less than 1,000 birds were killed. By 1934, farmers were being supplied with ammunition and being given bounties for each emu beak they handed in to authorities. Roughly 57,000 bounties were claimed in six months.