Premier Don Dunstan plays Canute in 1976 at
 Adelaide’s Glenelg beach as thousands defy wave prophecy

South Australian premier Don Dunstan waves to crowd gathered at Glenelg beach to defy the tidal wave prediction on January 19, 1976.
Image courtesy adelaideremberswhen, The Advertiser

Adelaide was in the overseas headlines in 1975 when Melbourne clairvoyant and house painter John Nash predicted that Adelaide and 800,000 inhabitants would be wiped out by an earthquake and tidal wave at noon on January 19, 1976. Nash believed that divine wrath would destroy Adelaide as leading Australia in anti-homosexual law reform.

Media publicity caused panic, particularly among non-English speaking migrants, with reports of properties, especially along the beachfront, being sold. On the designated day, some staff in seaside eateries refused to work and other drove up to the Adelaide Hills or as far as the Riverland. Country caravan parks emptied overnight.

The episode attracted overseas newspaper interest, including even The Times in London, with reporters flying in from the UK and the BBC phoning premier Don Dunstan to ask if were true that all the snails had left Adelaide.

The theatrical Dunstan responded by going to Glenelg on the morning of January 19, 1976, with a promise to stand King Canute-like on the beach.

Thousands tuned up at Glenelg, along with media, including a BBC television crew. There was a mostly fun mood. Some carried banners calling for everyone to repent their sins as the end was nigh; others dressed in bathers with flippers and goggles.

Dunstan assured the crowd that nothing was going to happen and that that Nash wasn’t welcome back in Adelaide. As the clock ticked down to midday, a countdown started and the thousands who had gathered all looked out to sea and waited. Nothing happened. No tidal wave and no earthquake. Adelaide happily remained the driest city in the driest state in the driest continent.