As the state struggles to pull up its volunteer firefighter membership, the Riverina bucks the trend.
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But Tarcutta fire captain Bruce Angel knows, when it comes to bushfires, complacency is the friend of devastation.
“We have enough members to cope with most seasons,” said the 69-year-old.
“It’s only when it’s a major incident that we may struggle, but those are rare.
“It’s not a critical problem now, but it will become one if we don’t address it now.”
Tarcutta currently has about 40 members, with around 15 to 20 available to be called on regularly.
During peak times, they each may work 12 hour shifts, but it leaves little time for any additional services.
“It’s not just fighting fires, we have a lot of day-to-day activities, like making sure the trucks are regularly checked and ready to go, and checking on elderly people to go through safety procedures,” Mr Angel said.
“The more [members] we have, the more we can call on to spread the load.”
Across the Riverina, there are 25,000 volunteers.
In the past year, 69 new members have joined, five of whom were in Tarcutta.
Unlike the majority of the state, where members are typically approaching elevated ages, the new members in Tarcutta are all under 40.
Additionally, while the state’s numbers are made up of mainly male volunteers, 60 per cent of the Riverina’s new recruits are female.
“It’s really great we’ve got some young ones coming in, and most of them are actually younger than me,” said Mr Angel.
“But a number of the older ones are looking at retiring, so if we don’t replace them we’ll have problems in the future.”
Mr Angel is now devising the station’s succession plan, but his efforts are somewhat hindered by forces well beyond his control.
Members may be drawn from roughly a 40km radius around the town, stretching approximately 15km to the north and 20km to the south.
“Farms are being bought up by neighbours or bigger companies, so you’ve got a lot of absentee landowners,” said Mr Angel.
“They can’t serve if they don’t live in the area, so there are just [fewer] people to join up.”
It is the same problem confronted by rural communities statewide, says NSW rural fire services operational officer Bradley Stewart.
“Young people are having to move away to city areas, large faring enterprises that were once owned by families are now owned by companies, meaning there just aren’t as many people in the town anymore,” said Mr Stewart.