Caloundra resident Dale Hall returned home from walking his dog on Anzac Day morning to find a lifeless blue-tongue lizard at the bottom of his pool.

Dusty the blue-tongue lizard recovering after being rescued from Dale Hall's swimming pool. ( Supplied: Dale Hall )

So what did he do? Pulled it out and gave it CPR, of course.

"I saw the belly of this blue-tongue lizard on the bottom of the deepest end of the pool," Mr Hall said.

"I was like, 'Oh no. Goner. First casualty for the pool.'"

Mr Hall's nephew, Jayden fished the lizard out of the pool with a leaf scoop.

And with his brother Caleb's help he tried to administer CPR to the lizard.

"Jayden started pumping its chest a bit," Mr Hall said.

There was water coming out of the lizard's mouth so the boys held it upside down to drain the water out of the reptile's lungs.

But, it remained lifeless and after 10 to 15 minutes the boys handed it over to Mr Hall who dug a hole to bury it.

"I went to put it in the hole and it winked at me!" Mr Hall said.

"I thought, 'Hang on here. It might be a goer still'."

Dale Hall, about to hand over the 'patient' to Wildlife Rescue Sunshine Coast. ( Supplied: Wildlife Rescue Sunshine Coast )

He held the reptile upside down and stroked its stomach as water continued to drain out of its mouth.

Twenty minutes later there was no sign of life, so Mr Hall went to bury the lizard a second time.

"I laid it in the hole and there was another twitch," he said.

"I could not believe this thing."

From there the lizard slowly improved to the point where Mr Hall called volunteers at Wildlife Rescue Sunshine Coast — a 24-hour animal rescue organisation.

They told him how to warm the blue-tongue, now christened 'Dusty' after Mr Hall's one-year-old son, and within a few hours it was hissing at him.

A volunteer picked 'Dusty' up and took him to Australia Zoo Animal Hospital where Mr Hall says it is "doing well".

"I got a call this morning; it's on a nebuliser."

"So there's a chance it's going to find its way back to my house. They're going to release it back in the backyard."

Blue-tongue 'should be dead'

Claire Smith from Wildlife Rescue Sunshine Coast said Dale Hall's story was the most extraordinary she had ever heard.

"Really, that blue-tongue should be dead," she said.

When their volunteer picked up the reptile from Mr Hall, she said "it had a really rattly chest because it had obviously got water in its lungs".

"If Dale hadn't turned him upside down and got a lot of water out [the lizard] would have just continued to drown."

Ms Smith said she wished there were more quick-thinking people like Mr Hall and his nephews.

"Hopefully this story will inspire other people to be a little bit more hands-on [with injured wildlife] and to ring us if they need help," she said.

Dale Hall, with his wife Naomi, and son Dusty whom the lucky blue-tongue lizard was named after. ( Supplied: Dale Hall )

A helping habit

It turns out that Mr Hall has a habit of helping wildlife.

While working near Miriam Vale several years ago, he found a dead kangaroo on the road and recovered a hairless joey from its pouch.

"It was covered in ants, so I got them off and put it in my hat in a warm spot in the car."

He handed the joey over to a carer in Agnes Waters but, sadly, it had internal injuries and died several days later.

The incident did not deter Mr Hall who recently required a tetanus shot after being bitten while trying to help a stunned possum that had fallen from a tree.