Exhausted wallaby found more than 1km out to sea off NSW

A marine scientist made an unusual discovery when she came across a swamp wallaby swimming more than one kilometre from the shore of a beach on the NSW North Coast.

Laura Sanchez Peregrine was in a tinny with fellow students from the National Marine Science Centre when they came across the marsupial near Arrawarra on Monday, ABC News reports.

She said when they first spotted the hairy-looking thing swimming towards their boat they were unsure what it was.

"At first I thought it was a seal, but we came closer and it was a big wallaby, maybe a 25kg wallaby, a big male," she said.

"He looked really, really exhausted."

The students then decided to return the wallaby, they nicknamed Swampy, to shore but its sharp claws made the task difficult.

"It's a really small tinny, and he had really long claws, so it was pretty scary and he wouldn't let us grab him.".

The group eventually managed to get the weary animal on board and took it to the beach where it gathered its strength for two minutes before hopping off.

She said swamp wallabies were known to occasionally swim but she couldn't say what had led this one so far out to sea.