With a drying climate, flammable vegetation, and changing land use patterns, the risk to Australian communities from fire is intensifying. The majority of fires in Australia occur in rural areas, and as such, local suppression capabilities are of great importance. Unlike in metropolitan areas, almost all the people fighting fires in rural Australia are volunteers. In Western Australia, more than 19,500 volunteer firefighters operate as part of 566 Bush Fire Brigades, overseen by their Local Government Authority. This reliance on volunteers places a heavy burden on members of rural communities, with these brigades largely made up of those who work on the land. Within the culture of Western Australian farmers is an acceptance that fighting fires is part of their livelihood. They receive no pay and few external resources, but overwhelmingly do not see themselves as volunteers. The rise of neoliberalism has led to fundamental changes across rural Australian communities, particularly those that centre around broadacre agriculture. These areas now face threats to their continued operability, such as population loss and ageing. This has led to private individuals and their enterprises incurring greater expenses to ensure that they continue to have the capacity to protect themselves, their neighbours, and the wider community from fire. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with volunteer firefighters from towns in the Great Southern and Wheatbelt regions of Western Australia. As the effects of climate change become more apparent and neoliberalist forces show no sign of abating, the pressure on an already overburdened volunteer workforce is set to increase. Due to these volunteers constituting their community’s front-line defence from fire, there needs to be a greater understanding of how firefighters and their brigades operate and the challenges that they are facing.