Bawley Point locals Scott Dennis and Jason Finlay were surfing with the aid of a jetski when they came back to the beach to take a break, and noticed something strange in the water.

At first they thought it was a seal, before realising it was a wallaby.

"We could see it was struggling," Scott said.

"It was trying to swim back to shore but it was stuck in a rip."

The men jumped in the water and swam out to the struggling wallaby, using the rip to take them quickly to where it was struggling to keep its head above the water.

Scott said they were worried about the wallaby hooking its claws into them, but Jason has a jetski jacket that he used to wrap up the struggling animal.

What happened next amazed the men.

Instead of struggling and fighting against the surfers, "It just sort of gave up," Scott said.

"It was as if it was saying 'You guys are here to save me' and it just relaxed against us."

The rip took Scott and Jason further out to sea away from rocks, making it easier for them to get back to the boat ramp where conditions were more calm, making it easier to get the wallaby away from the four-foot waves breaking over its head.

They got the wallaby to the shore but it simply stood on the sand with the waves breaking around it. 

Eventually they picked the wallaby up and carried it to some grassland on the edge of bushland where it again stood for a while before shaking off the shock of nearly drowning and slowly hopping away.

The wallaby's departure was greeted by laughter and celebrations among Scott, Jason and surf photographer Simon Punch.

"We were pretty happy after that, after seeing it survive," Simon said.

The men believed the wallaby had probably been washed out to sea while trying to cross the mouth of a nearby lake that had just opened to the sea.