SYDNEY - AN Australian surfer survived a shark attack on Sunday after shaking off the animal and paddling back to shore despite the agony of a giant bite wound to his leg, officials said.

The shark attacked the 31-year-old as he sat on his surfboard, close to a group of dolphins, at Fingal Beach in far north New South Wales state on the country's east coast early on Sunday.

Lifeguard coordinator for northern New South Wales Steven Lay said the man had no warning a shark was in the area.

'He tells us that there was a group of dolphins nearby and then the next thing that he realised was that he received a large bite to the top of his leg,' Mr Lay told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

'His mates saw some violent thrashing in the water and called out 'shark!'' Rescue helicopter doctor Kang Lim said the surfer was fortunate one of his friends had used the leg rope attaching the surfboard to the surfer to compress the wound and stem the bleeding.

'He was extremely lucky from the location of the bite and the size of the bite, he had an extremely large bite of about 30 centimetres (12 inches),' he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

The surfer will undergo surgery later on Sunday but his injury was not considered life-threatening.

The attack, which prompted an air-and-sea search for the shark and closed several beaches, comes two weeks after a swimmer was presumed taken by a large shark on the country's west coast.

Brian Guest, 51, disappeared while snorkelling south of Perth on December 27 and while his remains have not been found witnesses said they saw flashes of fins and blood in the water at the time he went missing.

Some 194 people have died in shark attacks in Australia over the past two centuries. -- AFP