Poppy Benton, who was working at her sister's cafe at the time of the incident, said the beach is popular and she had never heard of a shark attack in the area.
"I think this will be the first shark attack for the area. I haven't heard of anything before."
"There's always swimmers every morning (at the beach)."
Bob Armstrong, who has spent 60 years in Tathra, has had a long association with the local surf lifesaving club.
He said the club patrolled around the cliffs in the 1950s and had seen sharks but this was the first attack in the area he had known.