Rural fire brigades are found in a wide range of climatic environments: from the tropical north, through the sub-tropical central and south-eastern coastal regions, to the arid central and western interior.  

Each of these environments has its own type and distribution of vegetation, topography, land management and special needs.  The training of volunteers, therefore, needs to be flexible enough to account for the variety of strategies and tactics required to manage the local area, but standardised enough to permit brigade members to operate across environments when assisting neighbouring districts as the need arises.