Diver fights off hammerhead shark with camera on Queensland reef

A man has used a GoPro camera to fight off a six-foot hammerhead shark off Queensland's Cape York Peninsula.

Dion Creek was diving for crayfish on Magpie Reef off Princess Charlotte Bay on Thursday when he came face to face with the predator.

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Mr Creek's GoPro was rolling underwater when the shark suddenly appeared out of the blue and went straight for him.

"I was about to adjust the camera I just caught the shark coming out the corner of my eye," he told 9News.

Mr Creek says he hit the hammerhead three times with the camera's stick before it swam away.

"I pushed the first time, it came at me again," he said.

"I hit it the second time and I pushed it away the third time, just to push away from it."

The keen diver quickly resurfaced to find that he had escaped his brush with the hammerhead unharmed.

"I was the only person in the water, there were only two people in the boat," he said.

"Looking back on it I'm actually quite lucky, but at the time it didn't faze me."

Hammerhead sharks are distinguished by their unique shaped heads and inhabit waters off Australia and around the world.

Their distinctive heads help them zone in on prey by detecting the direction of a scent and to see prey both above and below at the same time.

Mr Creek said its the first time he's had an encounter with a hammerhead shark of that size and will be more careful next time.

"I don't want to be a statistic so next time I need to be more careful and take some more safety precautions and have another diver in the water," he said.

"Next week I'll be buying myself a lottery ticket."