Various areas of the state have FDI's of 100 + on a regular basis during summer - particularly areas of West Coast, Eyre Peninsula, & Pastoral areas. Nothing new in that.
It makes no sense to have many of those crews sitting in a tin shed in 44 degrees temps, waiting for something that has a low probability of occurring (although a high probability of being a problem if a fire does start!).
Particularly in those areas, every farm has its own farm fire unit. So if a fire does break out, you have farm units coming from all directions to assist, rather than one crew in a (slow) fire truck, which may have to travel 40 km or more to get to the call (and that's the closest appliance!!)
Asset wise, once the crops have been reaped, there are often not a lot of assets that need protection, in the same way we have say houses in the Mt Lofty Ranges.
I don't think we need to create different rules for different area - we need some common sense applied, taking into account the different circumstances that in exist in different areas!
Pip