By News Ltd
19 January, 1976
By News Ltd
19 January, 1976
By News Ltd
19 January, 1976
By News Ltd
19 January, 1976
By News Ltd
19 January, 1976
By News Ltd
19 January, 1976
By News Ltd
19 January, 1976
By News Ltd
19 January, 1976
By News Ltd
19 January, 1976
By News Ltd
31 December, 1975
By News Ltd
31 December, 1975
In 1975 Melbourne clairvoyant John Nash predicted that much of Adelaide would be wiped out by an earthquake and tidal wave at noon on January 19, 1976. Nash’s prediction quickly became rumour which swept the city, causing panic in some sections of the community. Many people sold their beachfront properties and migrants from non-English speaking backgrounds actually moved away from the city. John Nash himself packed up his possessions and moved to Warwick in southeast Queensland, which he predicted would be the safest place in Australia. On the fateful day thousands of tidal wave sceptics gathered on the Glenelg foreshore to witness their impending doom. South Australian Premier Don Dunstan joined the crowd at Glenelg jetty, offering to perform a ‘King Canute’ to halt the tide. As expected, the tidal wave did not eventuate and the crowd gradually dispersed, with many wandering off into nearby pubs. The next morning, The Advertiser in its editorial said: 'Hopefully, the lesson we should all have learnt from yesterday's pathetic anticlimax is to rely more on our common sense and less on the silly and unscientific speculation of self-appointed soothsayers.' Ironically, Warwick was hit by the worst flooding in living memory the very next week. 


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