Police said emergency service workers were called to Tathra wharf about 8.10pm and pulled the children, father and man out of the water all unconscious. The father could not be resuscitated and was pronounced dead at the scene, while his two children were taken by ambulance to Bega Hospital in a critical condition, but died shortly after.

The 37-year-old fisherman was revived by paramedics despite spending a lengthy period of time in the water and was taken to hospital. A spokeswoman for Bega Hospital said he was treated for superficial injuries. He was discharged at 12.30am today.

Local man A staff member at Kalaru Automotive, who did not wish to be named, said the man who had died was a local Kalaru man who worked in Bega.

"In a small community like this word travels fast. When they told me who it was I was shocked. "I didn't know him very well - used to say 'G'day' ... he had a couple of young kids and fiancee, and lived down the road. "He'd been a local and lived here all his life.

"Most people know him, he worked in Bega and lived out here in Kalaru - it's just very hard to believe something like this could happen." He said the small community was still reeling from a murder-suicide in the Pericoe Valley in June, in which Gary Bell killed himself and his three children, Bon, 18 months, Maddie, 5 and Jack, 7.

"Some of the things that have happened here in the last few years ... you wonder why they happen," he said. Fishing trip It is understood the father was fishing with his two children on the wharf, located at the end of Wharf Road at the southern end of Tathra beach.

The editor of the Bega District News, Steve Strevens, arrived a short time later. "The older child may have toppled [the pram] over, it ended up in the water and the father jumped in to help," he said. "A tourist also fishing at the other end of the wharf heard the splash and jumped in to help."

He said the other tourist, a woman in her 50s, phoned triple-0 and local emergency crews assembled at the nearby Tathra Surf Life Saving Club to get to the victims. A crew from the surf club set out in an inflatable rescue boat, while two surf lifesavers jumped into the water from the wharf despite the hazardous conditions. Mr Strevens said after they pulled the bodies from the ocean, surf club members and ambulance crew from nearby Bega and Bermagui worked to resuscitate the four people well into the night.

"They were there for a substantial amount of time," he said. "They were worked on extensively by the paramedics and then transferred to the hospital. The ambulances would have left at about 9.45pm." Before the children died, an ambulance spokesman said the "two children were in cardiac arrest and resuscitation continued all the way to Bega Hospital".

'It's so awful' The tragedy had already gripped the small community, said Quyen Nguyen from the local bakery, Tathra Bakehaus Swiss. "It's so awful, a lot of customers are talking about," she said.

"It's so shocking. I feel so sad for the young boys ... I've got young kids. "One or two people who've come in here said they know them, that they are local people. If they are young people I'd have seen them, a lot of people come into this bakery."

Ms Nguyen could not understand why anyone would have been at the wharf at night, saying conditions had been dangerous since the afternoon. "A customer who came in here said she went there about 5pm and said it was really windy." However, another resident who wished to be known only as Jake - from Tathra Beach and Bike - said the wharf was popular at all times.

"It was a cold and choppy, but there's always someone out there fishing, or just having a look," he said. Although the incident is not being treated as suspicious, police are calling for any witnesses to contact Batemans Bay police station or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000, as they prepare a report for the coroner.

- with Peter Hawkins and Arjun Ramachandran