Photos and video from a GoPro camera found 30 feet under water on the Great Barrier Reef, will be reunited with their rightful owners — a young couple from New South Wales.

Steven Gibson and Eva Vazne, from Pambula on the far south coast, came forward after a friend spotted their photos on ABC News on Friday morning.

The photos had been retrieved from a camera discovered off the far north Queensland coast in November 2017 by American tourist John Michael Darrin.

Mr Darrin retrieved the files this past week, after losing the SD card for nearly 12 months, and took to Reddit and Facebook in the hopes of returning them to their rightful owner.

Data on the camera dated the photos as January 2013, but Mr Gibson said they were only taken in August 2017, when he and his girlfriend of three years spent a weekend out on the Great Barrier Reef.

One of the photos retrieved from the camera. ( Supplied: John Michael Darrin )

"I couldn't believe it, I thought we'd never see them again. This made my day," he told ABC News.

"We hired the camera from the boat we were on, and then it fell out at some point. We were pretty bummed at the time, we both just accepted it was gone.

"We had to pay to replace it, but thankfully it wasn't too much."

Mr Gibson broke the news of the camera's recovery to his partner.

"She couldn't stop laughing, she was in as much disbelief as I am," he said.

"We are both very grateful to the man who found it and for his efforts to find us.

"We're very much looking forward to seeing what's on the card."

ABC News has put Mr Darrin and Mr Gibson in contact with each other to arrange for the return of the photos and videos.