The 3.5-metre calf was discovered lying still in very shallow water by a group of Maitland families picnicking in the popular spot.

Fisherman, Andrew Sharp was passing through the area when he came across the group who were trying to push the calf out to deeper water.

“It was the cutest thing you’ve ever seen this baby whale, but he was in the worst possible spot, very shallow water,” he said.

“There would have been about a dozen people there at one stage, the best thing we could do for it was to try and hold him up.”

Mr Sharp said the children who discovered the calf claimed to have seen a larger whale in the distance, believed to be its mother, but was not seen again.

Members of the National Parks and Wildlife Service and ORRCA (Organisation for the Rescue and Research of Cetaceans in Australia) arrived after dusk with shovels to dig out the infant.

“It was getting late and the waves were increasing, pushing us further back.”

“I thought ‘This isn’t looking good’, but then a big set came and washed him away. We thought he must have gone back out into deeper water with his mum.”

The rescue group searched the beach incase the whale had become trapped again but it was not found.

Mr Sharp returned to the beach at 7am on Monday morning when he found the creature several kilometres from where it was originally stranded.

“I reached down and touched him and he seemed ok. The National Parks and ORRCA people came out, but by then he hadn’t moved for a little while.”

With no injuries or other physical signs to explain the beaching, the whale was pronounced dead.

An umbilical cord and hair follicles around its mouth indicated that the calf may have been just one day old.

Mr Sharp said about 15 years ago a whale beached itself near the Hawks Nest Surf Club but this was the most recent incident he’d heard of in a long time.

Following a medical examination the calf is expected to be buried near Dark Point.