Station manager Jonathan Brocas said the Kurow station was responsible for an area that stretched from Duntroon to the Hooker Valley, but in reality the Kurow ambulance sometimes had to attend call-outs as far away as Tarras and Aoraki/Mt Cook.
But at present, there were only nine volunteers the station could call on, Mr Brocas said''It's the nearest ambulance that gets called, and sometime we are the nearest ambulance.''
The Kurow unit was also sometimes required to help out with calls in Oamaru and Dunedin he said.
Three new trainees would begin a six-month training programme, next month but even when they had qualified, another eight volunteers at least would be needed, Mr Brocas said.
The ideal number had been set at 20 volunteers, which would mean volunteers would be on call for one shift each a week and ambulance officers could carry out the minimum 40 hours of training a year required by national standards.
''When you have got a town of 339 people covering an area the size of this, you need enough people to have two people on at all times, and to allow people time off,'' Mr Brocas said.
In the 12 months between April 2012 and May, the Kurow ambulance attended 139 call-outs.
A force of 20 volunteers would make it possible to provide cover, with volunteers working one 12-hour shift a week.
''At the moment people just do what they can. Some people work one shift a week, but some people do more.''
New trainee Caroline Collett signed on with St John just before Christmas, and was looking forward to starting the first-responder course, which will allow her to attend incidents.
Mrs Collett said she had volunteered to ''give something back'' to the organisation and the local community. She had also learnt first-hand of the value of the service after St John came to the aid of a member of her family, she said.
