It is 40 years since Adelaide made headlines around the world for surviving a tsunami which never came, the doomsday prediction made by a clairvoyant driven by religious belief.

Key points: Clairvoyant said Adelaide would face tsunami in 1976

Clairvoyant said Adelaide would face tsunami in 1976 Then premier Don Dunstan turned episode into political theatre

Then premier Don Dunstan turned episode into political theatre Many made a joke of the doomsday prediction

John Nash said he had a vision that Adelaide would be wiped out, partly because South Australia was leading the nation on homosexual law reform.

Then premier Don Dunstan turned the issue into political theatre at the forecast time of the "tidal wave" by heading to Glenelg beach and promising to hold back the giant wave if it arrived.

"People were quite worried that indeed this would happen," a government press secretary of the era, Russell Stiggants, told 891 ABC Adelaide.

"[Don Dunstan] went down to assure everyone that it wouldn't happen. He ended up on the balcony of the Pier Hotel, waving to the masses below because theatre was as much politics to Don as politics was.

"He was in his safari suit and enjoying every minute of it. He was just chuckling throughout the whole episode."

Media teams from interstate and even overseas arrived in Adelaide to report on the bizarre prediction and the reaction from locals, some of whom even sold up property because of their fears.

News reports from the time said fears spread among groups such as non-English speaking residents who did not understand what was being reported in some media.

Glenelg tram 'not washed away'

Mr Stiggants said he was press secretary to the transport minister of the time, Jeff Virgo, and had a specific role to play at the supposed time of the tsunami.

"When this so-called tsunami was about to hit, I had to go down to make sure the Glenelg tram was not washed away," he laughed.

Don Dunstan enjoyed turning the prediction and media coverage into political theatre. ( Flinders University/News Limited )

He said the premier engaged in similar public theatre in that era on a somewhat more serious issue.

"He later did a similar thing, a little more seriously, when there was allegedly going to be a run on ... a credit union. He went down there [to the city headquarters] to assure people that the credit union's money was safe," Mr Stiggants said.

As for the tsunami which never hit Adelaide, 891 listeners recalled people playing along with the joke.

"I can remember I was catching an early morning flight and there was a gentlemen who rocked up in a suit with floaties stuck over his arms," Penny from Stirling said.

"I grabbed a life jacket and put it on. When I got to the office six other colleagues all fell about laughing and said 'How are we all going to fit into the life jacket?'" Peter from Craigmore said.

One caller said a group of surfies with their boards waited at the top of Mount Lofty for the wave to arrive, while another said a big group of people headed to Windy Point, another vantage point over Adelaide's plains, to see the "surging waters".

As for the clairvoyant who made the errant prediction, he is said by many people to have moved to the eastern states but lost his house to floodwaters not long after.