Dozens of small communities rely on just under 1,500 volunteers because their communities are too small to sustain having paid paramedics. The shortage is a problem for areas of the Murraylands and south-east. In Swan Reach on the Murray, there are five volunteers but five more are needed.
"A majority of the stations in the country are manned by volunteers, so therefore the more we can get the better it will be," Terry Whales of the SA Ambulance Service said.
Locals worry they may end up reliant on ambulance crews which are long distances from their small communities.
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