Welcome to Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of I Heart Radio and

Grim and Mild. Our world is full of the unexplainable.

And if history is an open book,

all of these amazing tales are right there on display,

just waiting for us to explore.

Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. In 1932, battle lines were drawn in Western Australia. The farmers in the area were facing

a domestic threat the likes of which no one had ever seen.

The Australian Army assembled their troops at one side of the battlefield.

Their enemy? 20,000 of the most unpredictable, undisciplined combatants the troops had ever faced.

It sounded like an easy win, but by the end of the week the Australian Army had gone

toe to toe with 20,000 flightless emus and lost.

To understand what brought Australia to take military action against a flock of birds, we have

to go back to World War I. During the war Australia

sent over 400,000 troops to fight in Europe. When they returned after the

war's end, the government awarded veterans land in Western Australia where they were supposed to grow wheat.

But by the 1930s the farmers were struggling.

The land was dry and arid and it was hard to grow enough wheat to make a profit.

And with the Great Depression crippling the global economy,

the farmers were losing more and more money.

They were already struggling to make ends meet

and then the emus showed up. Picture a very big bird, no bigger than that.

It should be nearly six feet tall in over 100 pounds with a long neck and a sharp beak.

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