It's the latter of that list that has kept Riverina Rural Fire Service member Kerry Campbell on board for more than half a century.

"My dad was always a member of the Oberne Creek brigade, and I guess I followed in his footsteps," he said.

"At a young age, even still at school, I would often go to the meetings with him and as I got older, I started to fight the fires too."

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Since that time, there have been a long list of changes to the service from technology through to budgeting, but one issue has grown more prominent in recent years which Mr Campbell said needed solving sooner rather than later.

"Younger people are coming up through the ranks, but not as many as we need or like what we used to see in my era," he said.

"It needs to pick up the pace, and people need to stick with it because a lot pull out.

"I'm not a young person anymore so I can't do all the heavy lifting forever, we need people to follow in our footsteps now and take over."

Mr Campbell, who is a part of the Oberne Creek Brigade, said you had to be 100 per cent for the idea of signing up in order to be successful. Being a part of the RFS was not a job that could be done halfheartedly.

"You either have it in your blood or you don't," he said.

"But for those who do, the rewards make it all the worthwhile."

Fellow RFS member at the Ariah Park Brigade, Nigel Judd, said he was less concerned about the interest of younger members and more of the impact big-name agriculture had on the service.

"Ariah Park has a good, solid core of members at the moment, but I think we're lucky because we still have a lot of our own farmers around," he said.

"Corporate farmers have essentially decimated other communities in the Riverina, so those community members move off leaving no one to join the brigades, given that the RFS is predominantly farmers."

Mr Judd received a National Medal recognising 55 years of service with the RFS last month, and said the change in the way things ran was clear.

"I remember in my younger days, the local hotel would have all the shearers, railway gangers, and other trades there, and if a fire broke out, there was already a crew made up to jump on the truck," he said.

"But those trades are not here anymore, so we've lost a lot in that respect."

However, Mr Judd said not all changes were bad.

"I've been on the Temora Council for 45 years too, and up until the 90s, council virtually ran the brigades in the shire," he said.

"It wasn't until the 1995 bushfires in Sydney that things really changed.

"The present-day RFS was born with a big headquarters and they started putting more money into training and equipment.

"All the equipment and procedures have been standardised too, so firefighters from other states can come here or we can go there and not have to learn a new way of operating."

After joining the Rural Fire Service in 1961, Oberne Creek Brigade's Kerry Campbell climbed the ranks from Senior Deputy Captain right through to Group Captain and everything in between.

He's attended numerous incidents over the years in the form of fires from lightning strikes, traffic accidents, structural fires, farm accidents and flooding, as well as making it his own responsibility to maintain equipment, tankers and more.

"When our brigade got its first tanker, it was stationed at our family farm," he said.

"I had it under my wing for 24 years until the newer model arrived, and we used to do all the truck maintenance ourselves."

Mr Campbell's dedication to the brigade also saw him up at all hours of the night, perched atop a hill overlooking the valley during an electrical storm where he'd watch carefully for any fires sparked from lightning.

"I'd get dressed, grab my ute, watch the lightning crack down and pray it didn't spark anything," he said.

It was a lot of work and rarely easy, but Mr Campbell's efforts saw him awarded with a National Medal for long service last month.

"It's not about the medal, though," he said.

For those considering becoming the next generation of firefighters for the NSW RFS, Mr Campbell shared his own motivation.

"I met a lot of people from all different brigades and to this day still, we're great friends," he said.

"I worked side-by-side with the best people, shared my leadership with them, gave directions at a fire but also fought it alongside them.

"If you haven't got open communication in a job, you won't get anywhere. It's all about respect, and I have nothing but that for my fellow members."

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