{"id":73366,"date":"2026-08-17T00:24:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T00:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/73366\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T00:24:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T00:24:12","slug":"swimming-emus-in-was-murchison-river-leave-visitors-in-awe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/73366\/","title":{"rendered":"Swimming emus in WA’s Murchison River leave visitors in awe"},"content":{"rendered":"

A group of emus swimming in one of Western Australia’s longest rivers has surprised tourists and locals alike.<\/p>\n

A video on social media that has garnered more than 5 million views shows the emus’ long necks bobbing through the Murchison River as they swim to shore.<\/p>\n

Kalbarri Cruises owner Tracy Grosvenor, who took the video, said they were running a regular tour on the Murchison when they spotted the birds.<\/p>\n

“We were probably nearly at the turnaround point, and in the distance, we can see these little black shadows crossing the river, and we didn’t know what they were,” she said.<\/p>\n

“So, we quickly zoomed up and there were four emus fully swimming across the Murchison.”<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Tracy Grosvenor says the emus swam about 70 metres across the river. (Supplied: Kalbarri Cruises)<\/p>\n

The state’s second largest river is about 800 kilometres long and home to hundreds of bird species.<\/p>\n

Ms Grosvenor and her husband Grant have run regular tours on the river for more than 14 years.<\/p>\n

She said while they have seen many emus along the river edge, it is the first time they have witnessed them swimming.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Tracy Grosvenor says they did not expect the video to generate such a big reaction. (Supplied: Tracy Grosvenor)<\/p>\n

“It was just right place, right time to capture it on footage.”<\/p>\n

The odd sight also captured the delight of the group who were visiting the region.<\/p>\n

“Everyone was so excited. We all ran up the front and the boat sort of tipped nose down,” Ms Grosvenor said.<\/p>\n

\"Long<\/p>\n

The video has drawn comparisons online with the Loch Ness Monster.\u00a0 (Instagram: @Kalbarricruises)<\/p>\n

Many commenters on the video on Instagram and Facebook have been quick to point out the similarity of the scene to a popular Scottish folklore.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I know people have thought it’s the Loch Ness Monster or swimming elephant trunks,” Ms Grosvenor said.<\/p>\n

Geraldton-based wildlife carer and vet nurse Jaydene Bartley said swimming was actually quite common for the flightless birds.<\/p>\n

“These guys love going through the water and having a good bath,” she said.<\/p>\n

“They have such heavy down underneath their feathers that it helps keep them cool throughout summer in particular and then aids in the cleaning for them.”<\/p>\n

\"Aerial<\/p>\n

The Murchison River mouth at Kalbarri in WA.\u00a0 (ABC Midwest Wheatbelt: Chris Lewis)<\/p>\n

Ms Bartley said the behaviour was seen frequently in WA’s north, where summer temperatures often hit 40 degrees Celsius.<\/p>\n

“However, it is seen throughout [the state] when there are puddles of water around,” she said.<\/p>\n

Ms Bartley said emus were strong swimmers and used to crossing large bodies of water to find food when needed.<\/p>\n

“Their food is sparse throughout. They have to sort of be able to travel across the river to get food, particularly when it’s warmer days like this.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A group of emus swimming in one of Western Australia’s longest rivers has surprised tourists and locals alike.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73367,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,10610,104891,104888,104890,20481,104889,33908,1564,104887,464],"class_list":["post-73366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-cruise","tag-emu","tag-kalbarri","tag-mid-west-wa","tag-murchison","tag-murchison-river","tag-regional-tourism","tag-regional-wa","tag-swimming-emus","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}