Sydney - Nine of the 10 survivors from a pod of 80 whales that beached themselves near Margaret River on Australia's west coast earlier this week came ashore again Wednesday.

The long-finned pilot whales were spotted not far from Flinders Bay, where they were shepherded out to sea by a volunteer army of nature lovers a day earlier.

Two were already dead, one had been attacked by a shark and the remaining six were likely to be put down because they were in poor condition.

The survivors had been loaded onto trucks at Hamelin Bay, where they initially came ashore Monday, and taken the 20 kilometres to Flinders Bay for release in deeper waters.

"The location is along a rugged stretch of coastline and it's impossible to bring in the machinery necessary to attempt another rescue," Department of Environment and Conservation officer Jason Foster said.

"There is no area on the beach where a helicopter can land safely, so the team will have to use four-wheel-drive motorbikes to access the area from private property."

The news of only one likely survivor will be particularly distressing to the Margaret River schoolchildren who were among the 200 volunteers who laboured to keep the whales wet over their time stranded on the beach. Some stayed up all night to help in the rescue efforts.

It is not known why strandings occur.

Whales are highly socialized animals and seemed wired to come to the aid of one of their number that gets into difficulties in shallow water.

Marine scientists say that if one animal is sick, others flock to it. When distressed, their navigational skills go haywire.

Foster said there had been 21 known mass strandings of whales and dolphins on the west coast of the continent since 1984. (dpa)