In the 1930s the term "War" on Emus or Emu "War" was widely used in newspapers as a descriptor for a long series of culling emus across the wheat belt (dry land wheat farming area) of Western Australia where emu populations were considered to have grown to plague proportions. The newspaper reports used quotation remarks around the word "War".

Emus are large flightless birds and when they form large flocks, as well as eating the grain they trample standing wheat and when panicked knock down fences by charging them repeatedly.

The wheat belt had large numbers of ex-soldiers settled on small farms under the soldier settlement schemes. These farms eventually proved too small to be financially viable however the voter numbers involved meant that they were politically sensitive and wild animal depredations on their crops triggered state intervention.

There was a bounty issued on emus, in the form of a payment for emu beaks. Farmers regularly shot emus, both as individuals, and in organized groups conducting sweeps, for instance trapping large numbers against the rabbit proof fence and shooting them with rifles. Another successful method was to use three or four trucks to drive across country at high speed circling the flocks and reducing the circle until the emus were milling in a tight group, then shoot them with shotguns. It was suggested that machine guns could be more effective.

In 1932 the Commonwealth approved a trial by the Australian Army of machine guns to cull emus in the area around Campion, a small town in the wheat belt, now abandoned. One officer, four soldiers, two lewis guns and 10,000 rounds of ammunition were supplied from 7th Heavy Battery, Royal Australian Artillery with the first of the trials being conducted on Wednesday 2nd November 1932. Unsurprisingly, the trials were not successful. Machine guns can only be fired safely from one side of the flock and without something to hold the flock in place the emus disperse and run away. It was found that it required a large number of machine gun bullets to kill a relatively small number of emus.

A newsreel (a short film typically of a few minutes to be played in theatres with other news before a main film) was produced of the trial and distributed around Australia. By 3 December 1932, the Perth Mirror was reporting complaints from theatre goers in the Eastern States about the cruelty of the cull while pointing out that none of them were suggesting any other method of dealing with the birds. A local farmers conference reported receiving a threatening telegram from Sydney saying that the RSPCA would not permit this "mass slaughter". The chairman of the conference stated that farmers would do whatever was needed to protect their crops and did not need anyone's permission.

Western Australian newspapers continue to report organized farmer "emu shoots" sometimes referencing the emu "war" until 1944.

As for the emus "winning" there are still plenty of emus around and their population numbers still vary according to climatic conditions.

Source: TROVE National Library of Australia Digitised Newspapers - Western Australia

Edit: It wasn't referred to as "The Great Emu War", just as the Emu "War"