For 20 years Frank Clayton has used his own vehicle to fight bushfires near his sugarcane farm in north Queensland.
“If you can get to the fire in first 20 minutes or half hour, then you have a chance of controlling it,” he said.
“When they’ve got away, we’ve spent three or four days fighting fires.”
Hundreds of volunteers have exited the Queensland Rural Fire Service in the past decade. (ABC Western Qld: Grace Nakamura)
But confusion over recently revealed changes to the insurance policies covering his property has him thinking twice.
“When a fire normally starts, the privately-owned vehicles are the first ones there,” he said.
“You haven’t got time to think about insurance.”
The Rural Fire Brigade Association of Queensland (RFBAQ), which represents volunteer firefighters, fears policy changes have watered down the coverage.
But the Queensland Fire Department, which manages the service, said the changes have improved the options for its 27,000 volunteer members.
First responders
Mr Clayton’s group at Bloosmbury, north of Mackay, is a Primary Producer Brigade and operates without a state-supplied firefighting truck.
A slip-on firefighting unit that primary producer brigades use to fight cane fires and bushfires. (Supplied: Rural Fire Brigade Association of Queensland)
The small brigades, which are estimated to make up about 60 per cent of rural fire services, rely on their own equipment, such as graders or “slip-on” water tanks that fit onto the back of a farm ute.
“[We use] whatever we can, whatever’s quick and can get there, just to try and prevent it,” Mr Clayton said.
RFBAQ general manager Justin Choveaux said an insurance policy published by the department in April referred to “limited” insurance coverage for privately-owned vehicles.
“The underlying contract is, you as a brigade member give your body and your equipment to go and do dangerous things to protect the state,” he said.
“The state supports you through workers’ compensation, legislative support and insurance, and now the state has broken that fundamental underlying contract.”
Justin Choveaux says volunteers need to be confident about their coverage. (ABC News: Amy Sheehan)
Previous policies applied to vehicles and heavy machinery, but the new policy has a narrower scope. It is based on the weight and registration status of the vehicle and who was driving it.
Most privately-owned utes and four wheel-drives under 2 tonnes will be insured, as long as attendance is logged and approved by an incident controller.
The vehicle must also be registered and driven by the owner or a close relative, which Mr Clayton said would make it difficult for volunteers who often shared private equipment during long firefighting periods.
“I’ve got two people that work for me and so I’ve got to question whether I can send them to the fire,” he said.
“I think that it’ll be another reason why people may not want to volunteer.”
Second thoughts
Vehicles weighing more than 2 tonnes, such graders, are not included in the new policy.
The majority of Queensland’s firefighting service is made up of volunteers. (ABC Western Qld: Grace Nakamura)
Mr Choveaux said brigades were no longer sure exactly what was being insured.
“What will happen today is that they will go to a fire believing they will be insured like they have been for decades,” he said.
“If they go to make a claim, they will find they are not insured.”
Rural Fire Service Queensland Chief Officer Kaylene Jones said volunteers were not worse off, because coverage had increased from $40,000 to $100,000 for light vehicles.
Kaylene Jones says firefighters who use private vehicles are better off under the changes. (ABC News: Luke Bowden)
“Equipment and heavy machinery that’s used in a firefighting activity by a primary producer brigades are covered under a different government insurance policy,” she said
“Then there’s a third insurance model that we apply, which is our Queensland Fire Department self-insurance (QFID) funding model.”
Under that model, which has been in place for decades, the department reimburses the excess on claims to private insurance.
The Rural Fire Service undertakes mitigation efforts at Illfracombe. (ABC Western Qld: Carli Willis)
“We’ll do some work on the policy wording to make sure that it’s clearer,” Ms Jones said.
Unintended risks
In 2025 the state government conducted an Inquiry into volunteering in Queensland, which found that in the five years to April 2025, 3,485 people left the service – a decline of 11 per cent.
It recommended an urgent consideration of organisational issues around volunteers and last month Minister for Fire Ann Leahy launched the Queensland Fire Department’s Volunteerism Strategy 2026-2030.
A fire on a rural property near Winton burning through grass and spinifex in 2023. (Supplied)
“The Crisafulli government is strengthening our firefighting volunteers by removing barriers to participation, improving safety and training, and ensuring volunteers have the support they need to continue serving their communities,” she said.
Volunteering Queensland chief executive Jane Hedger said complex policy changes could have unintended consequences that affected volunteer numbers and goodwill.
“When something comes along that makes that a little bit harder or makes it a little bit uncertain for how the volunteers are protected or placed, that really has an effect,” she said.
Ms Hedger said volunteers provided $117 billion in social and economic value to the state each year and were low risk for insurance.
“All volunteers want to know that if something does happen, there’s coverage for them,” she said.
