How five strangers saved shark attack victim Sean Pollard

That morning at Wylie Bay was warm but grey, murky and overcast - a bit sharky, Ross Tamlin remembers thinking, as he paddled out for his morning surf.

School holidays had started and despite the unsettled conditions, the waves were good enough to entice Ross, the deputy principal of the local primary school, into the water.

He was still out there an hour later, contemplating heading back, when he heard a scream that chilled his blood, coming from the surf break hundreds of metres up the beach.

In the hours that followed that moment, Ross and the disparate group of beachgoers on that long stretch of sand would work together to save the life of the source of that horrifying scream: young surfer Sean Pollard, who was struggling in the water after suffering terrible injuries in an attack by two sharks.

The popular Kelpids beach, just 6km out of town, would usually have 30-odd surfers out on its breaks and a full carpark.

MATES' PRAISE FOR 'POLLY | ATTACK FEARS | DANGER TIME IN THE WATER | KILL ORDER FOR SHARKS | SHARK ATTACK AS IT HAPPENED | FISHERIES DEATH THREATS

On this day, there were only a handful of people but for Sean, they were the right ones: who they were and how they reacted was almost certainly the difference between his life and death.

Two fathers, enjoying a day at the beach with their families, rushed into the bloodied water to pull him on to the beach.

One of their wives, a volunteer ambulance officer, stemmed his bleeding with tourniquets made from surfboard leg ropes and towels.

Sean's girlfriend Claire Oakford helped to comfort her distressed partner.

Ross alerted others and then called police, who rushed with paramedics to the scene to get Sean to hospital.

Sean and Claire had driven down to Esperance from Bunbury in the days before, checking into a beachside holiday unit.

That morning, they drove their Nissan Patrol out of town, down the 4WD track to the beach and along the sand towards the breaks, so Sean could indulge his passion - surfing.

Sean Pollard and girlfriend Claire Oakford.

Sean had reportedly been trying to teach Claire but by 11am, she was relaxing on the white sandy beach while he surfed a couple of hundred metres offshore.

Sean was on his way back in when the sharks attacked him, biting his legs, ripping the hand off one arm and tearing the flesh to the bone on the other.

The cry he let out was enough for Ross to know, just by instinct, that it was a shark.

He was too far away to see exactly what was happening but immediately started paddling the 150m to shore.

"I just heard this almighty scream and just felt really uneasy and, knowing of the shark sightings of recent times out there, I just got out of the water as quickly as I could," Ross said.

As he approached the beach, he yelled out to another man, splashing around with his daughter in the shallows, that someone was in trouble.

That man was 40-year-old Peter Rothnie, in town from Albany with wife Kylie and their three girls.

In a twist of fate for Sean, Kylie is also a volunteer ambulance officer with first aid training.

By this time, Ross was back on the beach and could see a big pool of blood in the water where Sean had been surfing.

He and Peter both had their cars parked close by, so they jumped in and started driving down the beach to help. On the way, Ross picked up his phone and dialled triple-0, alerting police and ambulance services to the unfolding incident.

Ross Tamlin, back at the beach. Picture: Nic Ellis/The West Australian

As they raced towards the spot, local train driver Dean Gaebler had just arrived at the beach for a swim with his wife, children and a few friends.

From where he stood, he could see Sean, who had struggled back to within 50m of the beach before blood loss meant he could go no further.

The badly injured surfer stood up in the swirling waist-deep water, then collapsed.

"He stood up and then just fell on his back, so we raced in to help him," Dean said.

While Ross remained on the phone to the authorities, Peter and Dean started wading out to Sean, despite having no idea if the sharks that attacked him were still in the area.

As they got closer, Dean could see Sean's eyes were closed.

Dean Gaebler

They feared maybe he was already dead.

They called out and felt relief wash over them when he opened his eyes and looked up at them, alive but silent.

"It was a bit surreal ... we were just trying to keep him conscious and he never said anything to us," Dean said.

It was obvious that Sean was critically injured.

Apart from his missing hand, gone from the wrist, Peter and Dean could see the bone through the mess of his other arm.

Doctors would later have to amputate the arm because the damage was so severe.

The water was full of blood and they could see Sean was fading.

They dragged him through the shallows and on to the beach, where Peter's wife Kylie was waiting.

It had only been seven months since she completed her first aid training, to become a volunteer ambulance officer with St John in Albany.

Now, she would be put to the test in the most intense of circumstances.

The training kicked in and what she did next, authorities say, probably saved Sean's life.

Using the leg ropes from the surfboards as tourniquets and beach towels as bandages, they worked together to stop the blood loss.

Claire was by Sean's side.

Kylie Rothnie

"We just did what had to be done ... after he was dragged out of the water," Kylie said. "Dean and Peter did an awesome job wrapping up his arms and we were just trying to control his breathing and keep him calm.

"He was talking and I was just asking him things like where was he from and he was just so brave."

In a situation that would test even professionals, Kylie said everyone was calm.

The strangers worked together like a well-oiled machine to save a life.

Using a surfboard as a stretcher, the group lifted Sean into the back of Claire and Sean's car.

Peter drove as Dean, Claire and Kylie tended to Sean.

They were barely a few hundred metres up the beach when a police car appeared, driven by Const. Andre Michalski.

Shortly before, he and partner Tracey Laylor had been having a run-of-the-mill morning, driving the streets of their country town, when the job popped up on their car's computer screen: priority 2, shark attack.

"We both looked at each other and just said, 'oh my goodness'," Andre said. "We could see from the text what the injuries were and we just jumped straight on the radio."

They hit the lights and sirens and raced out of town, heading east towards the turnoff to the beach.

The short drive to Wylie Bay seemed to take an eternity.

As they came out from the track and on to the sand, they could see a car coming towards them, flashing its headlights.

Andre said he could see straight away the situation was desperate.

A decision was made to leave Sean where he was in the back of the car and keep driving back to town to meet up with the ambulance already en route.

By the time they reached paramedic Paul Gaughan, about a kilometre or so down the road, Sean was slipping in and out of consciousness and in enormous pain.

"We were able to transfer him (to the ambulance) and give him some pain relief and continue his treatment," Paul said. "He was a very courageous and brave person to have gone through what he had been through and still, he was very calm.

"It made our work quite easy, because of his calmness.

As a paramedic, Paul deals in life-or-death situations regularly.

He is convinced that if not for the work done by Kylie and the others, the outcome for Sean could have been very different.

"It would have been a very confronting situation (and) they have all gone into action to do what needed to be done and stop the bleeding very quickly and apply that first aid which was no doubt life saving," he said. "Those early minutes were the minutes that counted."

Police constable Andre Michalski at Wylie Bay Beach where he assisted with the rescue.

A medical team, on standby at the Esperance hospital, was able to stabilise Sean and begin much needed blood transfusions.

The Royal Flying Doctor Service plane flew in more blood and by 3pm, Sean was stable enough to be loaded on to the plane to head for Perth.

Claire wasn't far behind. She was given a commercial flight to Perth and was met at the airport by Sean's distraught mum and brothers.

Sean, who is now recovering in Royal Perth Hospital, and Claire wanted their rescuers to know how grateful they were, phoning Esperance police chief Sen. Sgt Richard Moore to convey their thanks.

"He (Sean) has a very positive attitude and he and his partner Claire have thanked the community and the emergency services for their assistance yesterday," Sen. Sgt Moore said. "She (Claire) is still in a bit of shock.

Sean Pollard arrives in Perth by Royal Flying Doctor.

"She has got Mr Pollard's family around her and her family - she is from Tasmania - are flying in today to support her."

As Sean begins the long process of recovery, for the rescuers, the horrific interruption to their holidays was over almost as suddenly as it started.

But the ordeal has left its mark.

For Kylie, the reality was only just starting to sink in.

"It was just the quick thinking of everyone that was there really that helped," she said. "It is still scary now to think about what happened."

Ross, a regular weekend and holiday surfer, will think long and hard about getting back in the water after what he witnessed on his local break. "The innocence has gone a bit ... it will take a while to get back out there and surf for sure," he said.

Additional reporting Katherine Fleming