A fisherman swam 12 hours to reach the shore while another survived 30 hours at sea until a helicopter spotted him on Thursday after their trawler sank off the Australian coast, rescuers said.

"I wasn't going to die out there mate," said a sunburnt and dehydrated John Jarratt from his hospital bed, after spending 30 hours in the water clinging to a fish-sorting bin.

A third fisherman is still missing.

Their trawler sank after hitting a reef 15 km (9 miles) off the mid-northeast coast of Australia before dawn on Wednesday morning prompting a major search and rescue operation.

One of the fisherman, 39-year-old Michael Williams, crawled ashore near Brunswick Heads, exhausted, dehydrated and bloodied, some 12 hours after his ship sank.

"He had pretty bad cuts and bruises to his legs and his arms, he was pretty exhausted, pretty badly sunburnt," said Chris Gort who helped the fisherman on the beach.

NEVER AGAIN

Recovering in Ballina District Hospital, Jarratt told friends he would "never" go back in the ocean, reported local media.

Jarratt said he and skipper Charlie Picton, 40, had both clung to a foam cooler called an "esky" after the ship went down, but in the darkness the two became separated.

He said a search party helicopter had apparently flown right above the men without spotting the exhausted pair.

"Every time the esky got a bit too much water in it he'd have to sort of hold Charlie up in one hand and hold the esky up out of the water with the other and then put it back down so it was full of air again," said family spokesman Mark McMurtrie.

Jarratt, was picked up by a helicopter about 15 km northeast of the fishing town of Ballina, 30 hours after he was thrown into the ocean.

"Judging that the second fisherman survived through the night ... we can only hope that the same has occurred with the third," said Roger Fry, a spokesman for a Lifesaver Rescue Helicopter service.

Fishing trawlers joined surf rescue and police on Thursday to search for the skipper Picton, a longtime fishermen off Australia's east coast.

"A lot of our trawlers are up there participating in the search," said friend Russell Creighton. "He's a really, really good fisherman - a nice young bloke. Like everyone, I'm waiting to hear the news."

Police said they would search until nightfall for Picton, holding out hope he may still be alive as sea conditions were calm and the ocean temperature a warm 24 degrees Celsius.

"We hold grave concerns for that gentleman at the moment based on the time the search has been going on," Water Police Superintendent Mark Hutchings told reporters. "However, at this stage we live in hope and we will continue to search."