A nurse who tried to resuscitate Steve Irwin says the Crocodile Hunter had virtually no hope of surviving the stingray attack that killed him.

Nurse Enid Traill said she and paramedics were shocked to learn the man they had been trying to save on the Great Barrier Reef was Steve Irwin.

And in an uncanny coincidence, Mrs Traill said she knew the celebrity conservationist when he was a teenager - more than 1,000 kilometres north of the Sunshine Coast where Steve Irwin grew up - but hadn't recognised him.

A stingray's barb pierced Steve Irwin's chest at 11.18am (AEST) at Batt Reef on September 4.

He arrived at the remote Low Isles for treatment 34 minutes later, at 11.52 (AEST).

Mrs Traill, 55, offered to help those working on Steve Irwin as he was taken into a boat shed.

I knew it was a terrible situation because we could not get any air into his lungs, she said.

We worked on him for 10 minutes and then the paramedics arrived and examined the hole in his heart.

They said he wouldn't have survived even if it happened in an operating theatre.

It was not until Steve Irwin's manager John Stainton identified Steve Irwin that those working on him realised who it was.

We all looked at each other in shock - we were numb. It was a horrible moment that I will never forget.

But adding to the shock was that Mrs Traill first met the 44-year-old celebrity 30 years ago as a teenager on the Sunshine Coast where she still lives.

She knew him as the kid with lizards in his pockets.

He used to call round to the refrigeration business her family ran looking for a surfing mate who worked there.

In more recent years, Mr Irwin had helped Mrs Traill's fundraising efforts for the local surf club.

I think the fact he was from home, and someone I knew, made the impact greater on me. I would rather say I wasn't there, but I was, Mrs Traill said.

Steve's death cast a terrible pall on that island paradise near Port Douglas.