Fight with the Flightless: Australian Federal Cabinet, 1932 AUSTRALIA

The roaring twenties had been great time for Australia! Among their many successes was the soldier settlement program, which took returning World War 1 veterans and gave them free, “uninhabited” farmland in rural parts of the country to produce food and support their livelihoods. It was a great idea, and successful from the beginning.

But as the 1930s began to roll around, everything quickly began to fall apart. First came the Great Depression, and along with it a host of issues: financial turmoil, rampant unemployment, a slumping export market and widespread unrest in the midst of a suffering global economy. Agitation within the Australian government was also at an all time high, with a brewing intra-Parliament civil war.

Along with this, a new problem was beginning to form: Australia’s newly settled farmland was perhaps not as uninhabited as they first thought. For deep in the rural Wheatbelt of Western Australia, a dark and terrible force beginning to wreak havoc on the nation. Numbering in the thousands: crafty, nimble, unstoppable… and flightless, this is no ordinary enemy. It’s a vast, evil emu empire- and they want war. They’ve been destroying the beloved farmers veterans’ crops and wreaking havoc on what had once been a succesful program.

Now, it’s 1932 and the Australian Federal Cabinet faces this double whammy of the great depression and the emu “army”. Will the Australia navigate its way out of this crisis and reclaim its western farmland for productive use? Or will the Emus and the Great Depression cripple the country to the point of no return? It’s up to you.

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