The quick thinking of onlookers is believed to have saved Australia’s latest shark attack victim after he was bitten on the thigh while surfing off Bombo Beach, in southern New South Wales.

The Illawarra Mercury reports Brett Connellan was surfing about 100 metres off the northern end of the popular beach shortly after 7pm when the attack occurred.

A friend helped him from the water before onlookers applied an arterial tourniquet around his severed thigh.

Ambulance NSW Illawarra district officer Inspector Terry Morrow said the quick thinking saved Connellan’s life.

“He had lost a large proportion of his left thigh, and the quad muscle was torn away right down to the bone,” Insp Morrow said.

“He could’ve bled to death before we arrived on the scene. He was very lucky the members of the public were there and acted as they did. They saved his life, to tell you the truth.”

Connellan was airlifted to hospital where he remains in a serious but stable condition.

Surfer Brett Connellan.

The attack follows the implementation of several preventative measures off beaches in other parts of New South Wales.

Off Bondi, a device called Clever Buoy was deployed after a string of sightings, run ins and attacks.

The system detects the presence of any marine life over two metres and alerts lifeguards directly to an app installed on their smartphones.

Clever Buoy’s creators say two metres was the decided benchmark due to evidence showing an attack by anything smaller would be unlikely to result in a fatality.

Further up the coast in Ballina, barriers to be installed off Lighthouse beach have been criticised by local surfers for a lack of consultation over it’s positioning.

Ballina surfer Mark Herning told The Northern Star the Department of Primary Industries failed to consult with surfers and other groups.

“The whole process has been a massive shambles,” Herning said.

“It went from speaking to some people at Le-Ba (boardriders) about the idea of having a barrier to ‘that’s what we’re going to do.”

Herning said temporary ropes marking where the barrier would go indicated it was too close to the surf zone.

“I think they are going to wreck a really good surf break…it handles a small south swell beautifully and they’re going to put a net right through it.”

Current WSL injury replacement world ranked 25, and Ballina local Adam Melling also vented his frustration on Instagram.