Firefighter Chris McDonnell spent weeks in January fighting the Dunns Road bushfire, which came within a kilometre of his own property.

As captain of the Tumblong Rural Fire Service Brigade, he saw the desperate need for more resources and said any support was valued.

The 2020 Federal Budget outlined a boost of $11 million each year to the ability of the National Aerial Firefighting Centre, bringing the annual firefighting funding to $26 million.

The focus on aerial firefighting support was one which Mr McDonnell had been backing for a long time.

"There were a couple of times where the fire front could have been put out in certain places had the planes kept working for another half an hour in the places we couldn't get to on the ground," he told The Daily Advertiser in July.

While not everyone was impressed with the value pledged to supporting firefighting, Mr McDonnell said it was "definitely a step in the right direction".

"It's a no-brainer really, any funding for additional aerial firefighting, or firefighting in general, is a positive thing," he said.

"It's like asking 'How long is a piece of string', how can you put a figure on what's enough, and at the end of the day, it's great to get anything at all."

The brigade captain said people needed to consider the bigger picture when assessing the value of this year's budget.

"We're still in the middle of COVID-19 and the biggest recession - nationally and globally - we've seen since the Great Depression, so you can't expect money to grow on trees," he said.

"Given the circumstances and the position we're in, this is a fantastic help to our firefighting capabilities."