Two surfers, including a teenage girl, have been attacked by sharks in separate incidences off Australia’s coastline on Sunday, just two weeks after a great white shark took a snorkeller off a beach in the west of the county.

The 13-year-old girl was bitten by what is believed to be a 16ft great white shark while surfing at Baileys Rocks at Binalong Bay on the north eastern coast of Tasmania in southern Australia on Sunday afternoon.

The white pointer bit through the teenager’s surfboard and injured her leg as she paddled through the water. Witnesses said that despite the vicious attack from the ocean predator, the victim was remarkably calm when she was brought onto the beach and treated for her injuries.

"By that stage people had wrapped her leg up where the wounds were and elevated it and she was just lying in the position on the beach," Cathy Lloyd told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

"There were quite a few people. Luckily there was a doctor who happened to pass at that stage as well, so he was helping.

"It wasn't nice, it wasn't pretty."

The teenager is being treated in hospital for her injuries, which are not considered life threatening.

Earlier in the day a 31-year-old man was attacked by a large shark while surfing off the north of NSW on Australia’s east coast.

The surfer was paddling with three friends about 200ft offshore at Dreamtime Beach at Fingal in far northern NSW when a large shark bit his leg, ripping a 12-inch chunk out of his left thigh just after 9am.

The man, who remained conscious throughout the violent attack, managed to shake off the shark and paddle back to shore where his friends used the leg rope of his surfboard as a tourniquet and applied towels and sheets to stem the bleeding

A lifeguard said the group had been swimming among a pod of dolphins but the group had no warning there was a shark 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," Northern NSW lifeguard coordinator Stephen Leahy told the ABC.

"His mates saw some violent thrashing in the water and called out 'shark!'

“Then the patient realised that he'd been bitten on his leg He has received a reasonable-sized bite to his upper thigh. The good news is that no major arteries or bones were destroyed.”

The surfer, from Brisbane in Queensland, will undergo surgery but his wounds are not considered life threatening

The attack forced police to close Dreamtime Beach at Fingal head, and all the beaches along the same stretch of coastline in far northern NSW and southern Queensland.

It is not known what type of shark attacked the surfer. An air and sea search failed to find the shark.

Locals say they regularly see sharks in the surrounding beaches but are not concerned about them, and there has not been a reported shark attack in the area before.

The shark attacks come just two weeks after Brian Guest went missing off a beach in Western Australia while snorkelling with his son. A 14ft great white shark was seen thrashing about in the area where Mr Guest, 51, was last seen. His body has not been found and a memorial service was held for him last week.

Mr Guest’s death came amid a spate of shark sightings around Australia, where many people have been flocking to beaches to enjoy the summer heat.

According to the NSW Primary Industries Minister, 577 great white sharks have been caught in shark nets along the NSW coast between 1950 and 2008.

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