The what-if
What if the Great Emu War had prompted a local experiment in preventing crop losses rather than reliance on emergency intervention? This article explores that possibility—not as an inevitable or demonstrably better alternative, but as a way to test how a different policy might have worked.
The military operation is documented history. The proposed policy programme and its consequences are counterfactual fiction.
The documented starting point
The National Archives of Australia dates the beginning of the emu cull to 1932. Its account describes emus consuming crops and damaging fences in Western Australia, and soldier settlers requesting machine guns to cull them. (National Archives of Australia)
The State Library of Western Australia identifies the episode known as the Emu War or Great Emu War as a wildlife-control operation involving Australian Army gunners in the Campion district. It describes the military efforts as largely unsuccessful. (State Library of Western Australia)
Both institutions record further requests for military assistance in 1934, 1943 and 1948. These requests suggest continuing or renewed concern; they do not establish the duration or severity of damage on individual farms. (State Library; National Archives)
For a related account, see The Great Emu War: What Happened in Western Australia in 1932?.
The policy question: what counts as success?
For this exercise, distinguish three possible objectives:
- killing a specified number of birds;
- reducing crop losses in a particular area;
- reducing the need for repeated emergency intervention.
These are different measures. Choose the outcome that matters before imagining a successful policy.
The two accounts cited above establish the historical starting point, but neither supplies a costed comparison of preventive options for Campion in 1932. The scenario below therefore leaves effectiveness, maintenance costs and responsibility for payment unresolved.
An imagined policy branch
Everything in this section is counterfactual. The stages are writing choices, not a historical timeline. This is not a claim that prevention was unknown or untried in actual policy.
First stage: investigate before expanding
Imagine officials responding to the episode by commissioning a small local investigation. Participating farmers record where damage occurs and estimate losses. Officials compare those reports with the costs of emergency action and proposed crop-protection trials.
The objective is deliberately narrow: reduce losses on participating farms, rather than promise to eliminate emus from the district.
This stage could fail before any practical trial begins. Farmers might lack time to keep records, officials might question the estimates, or participants might disagree about what should count as damage.
Second stage: test prevention locally
In this imagined branch, authorities fund a limited crop-protection trial. Fencing or repairs are considered as options rather than assumed solutions. Before proceeding, officials require estimates of construction, labour and maintenance costs.
The trial compares recorded losses before and after intervention, while acknowledging that changing conditions could complicate the comparison. Its rules require more than one favourable season before recommending expansion.
An uneven result provides one possible setback: some participating farms report benefits while others report little improvement. Officials must then decide whether to adapt, expand or abandon the scheme.
Third stage: negotiate responsibility
If the trial appears promising, imagine a dispute over funding. Should individual farmers pay because they receive the immediate benefit? Should public authorities contribute? What happens to farms outside the trial area?
A coordinated programme might emerge, but so might a patchwork of local arrangements. Neither ending should be written as a guarantee of fairness or lasting protection.
Longer term: a different lesson—or no lasting change
The most ambitious branch would make the episode a reference point for judging rural interventions by measured crop losses rather than visible activity. A later writer could explore whether this local example influenced wider policy, but would need to invent and label the decisions connecting those stages.
Alternatively, the experiment could disappear after disappointing results or a funding dispute. The imagined authorities might return to emergency control. Reform should have to survive the story’s practical tests, not succeed simply because the author prefers it.
Classroom workshop
Use the two external sources below to separate evidence from invention.
- Build an evidence ledger. Record each historical statement, its source and what that source does not establish.
- Choose an objective. Define success without relying solely on the number of birds killed.
- Draft a policy briefing. Propose one local trial, identify a cost and a possible unintended consequence, and state what evidence is missing.
- Write two endings. In one, the trial gains support. In the other, it fails. Explain the decision that sends each branch in a different direction.
Discussion question: what additional evidence would you need before calling either imagined policy fairer or more effective?
Create your own branch
Use Nexus Historia’s create page as a starting point for your own what-if. State the documented starting conditions, identify the invented decision and include a reason why the alternative might fail.
FAQ
What was the Great Emu War?
It was an Australian Army-assisted emu-control operation in Western Australia in 1932, associated with farmers’ concerns about crop damage. (National Archives; State Library)
Did the operation solve the farmers’ problem?
The State Library describes the efforts as largely unsuccessful. That supports a limited conclusion about the operation’s shortcomings, not a complete assessment of every farm’s losses. (State Library)
Did it change national agricultural policy?
The two sources used here do not establish a nationwide shift towards prevention. A wider policy change belongs to this counterfactual premise, not to the documented outcome presented here.
Sources and their limits
- State Library of Western Australia, *Channel 7 Historical News Collection*: “Western Australia declares war on emus”. A catalogue description of archival footage, with contextual information about the operation and subsequent requests for assistance—not a farm-loss survey.
- National Archives of Australia, “Environmental issues from the not so distant past”, section “Emu wars”. An institutional historical overview drawing on archival holdings—not a costed evaluation of alternative crop-protection programmes.
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