The girl's family treated her at the scene while they waited for paramedics to arrive, with a nurse who was on the beach performing CPR on the teenager for 30 minutes.
She was taken by ambulance to Esperance Hospital in a critical conditon and later died.
The family, from Mandurah, had been in the area on an Easter holiday.
Wylie Bay Beach will remain closed today and surfers have been warned to stay away for at least the next 48 hours.
A great white shark had been spotted near the beach within the last week, it was reported.
Surfer Sean Pollard was attacked at Wylie Bay in 2014. He lost his right hand and left arm in the attack.
Fisherman and surfer Neville Manstead told the West Australian that he would never enter the water at the beach again.
'That's twice now in the same spot. It could have been my son,' he said.
He added that great white sharks were 'breeding like flies' near the beach.
Esperance shire president Victoria Brown said the teenager's death was 'devastating news' for the community.
The 17-year-old is the third person to die in a shark attack in Western Australia in a year.
Grandmother Doreen Collyer, 60, died after she was attacked by a great white shark while scuba diving on a reef near Perth on June 5, 2016.
Ben Gerring, 29, was killed by a shark just a day earlier after having his leg severed at Falcon Beach, in Mandurah.
The area where the 17-year-old girl was attacked is isolated and sits about 16kms outside of Esperance.
The remote beaches are surrounded by shrubbery and connected to area towns by lengthy roads.
Esperance is home to the Pink Lake, which is famous for its bright pink water.
