Watch: Beach-goers rescue disoriented wallaby in the surf

Nov. 27 (UPI) -- Visitors to a Queensland, Australia, beach braved crocodile-infested waters to rescue a disoriented wallaby struggling in the surf.

Angus Burnett, 32, said he was walking on Trinity Beach in Cairns when he spotted a woman looking out into the water at what turned out to be her husband attempting to lead a wallaby back to shore.

The woman told Burnett her husband had been out in the water for about 10 minutes.

"I just swam out and helped him," Burnett told 7News.

He said the wallaby was more than 150 feet from shore.

"It was a bit disorientated and wouldn't come back in at all," he said. "It was kicking around a bit and was a bit tired. It would go limp and go under at time, so you had to pick it back up."

A third witness, a woman, swam out to help, and the trio were able to guide the marsupial back to dry land, where it hopped away.

Burnett said the rescue is "something you do to help out, isn't it, as an Australian."

He later found out the rescue had been caught on video.

"I was a bit embarrassed," Burnett said. "I was just in my jocks. I was wearing my favorite undies from Kmart."

Wallabies have been known to become disoriented in the surf at Queensland beaches in the past. A police officer came to the rescue of an exhausted wallaby swimming off Bed Beach in Bribie Island in 2020, and another was found swimming four miles offshore earlier that same year.