If you head along to the new BlazeAid camp in Kangaroo Valley helping local landowners overcome the recent devastating bushfires, you're likely to come across at least one.

Loosely described as a "league of nations" the Valley BlazeAid camp sprung into action on Monday, with volunteers set to spend the next six months restoring kilometres of boundary fencing destroyed in the fires.

The early volunteers in the Valley camp are a real international flavour, including a woman from Ireland, a Scottish couple, a French chef, a young German carpenter, a Canadian, now Aussie, and a couple of ex-pats Kiwis who for a number of years now have now call Australia home.

Among the volunteers are well-known Shoalhaven Rugby identities and proud Kiwi ex-pats Phil Olsen and Doug and Linda Bice.

All three are well-known for their efforts behind the local club's establishment and success in the early years and see volunteering with BlazeAid as another way of giving back to their community.

"We'd heard about BlazeAid on Macca's show on the ABC years ago," Mr Bice said.

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"We went to Milton and did a few weeks work down there and have relocated up to Kangaroo Valley to help establish the camp here."

As a builder by trade, Mr Bice's expertise is a great assistance to the organisation, but according to Mr Olsen it's his "organisational skills that are the real bonus".

"Doug's used to organising jobs and organises things well," he said.

"That's a real advantage."

"Everyone is keen to go and have a bit of a go, so you don't have to organise too much at all," Mr Bice said.

Olsen, a former Junior All Black, is now a grey nomad and has been joined on his adventure by his grandson Oliver, who is over from Perth, getting "some life experience".

Phil had originally thought of heading north to Ebor on the Northern Tablelands to volunteer for the organisation.

"I went and helped at Inverell last year," he said.

"We were heading up north again and thought we'd help out at Ebor but they were closing the camp down. So we thought we'd do a bit locally for a few weeks before heading away.

"We went down to Milton and bugger me there were Linda and Douggie.

"Who'd have thought a few old rugby guys would end up together.

"It's a great feeling to be able to help your local community. Being able to give back is special.

"At our first camp I felt we took more away than what we gave. It's just a good feeling.

"It doesn't cost bugger all - we come out, do a bit and go home and feel good."

Mr Bice said being a builder or having experience is not necessary

"There are lots of builders here who can throw things up," he said.

"It's not all about building - it's also about listening and talking to those affected.

"Sometimes all a lot want to do is sit down and talk to you. The work is as much emotional as it is physical. It's as much emotional, as replacing stuff.

"It's not hard yakka, you just poke along. No one's racing to finish a job. Part of theory is if people want to talk you talk.

"It doesn't matter if you come home and no fencing's been done. Mental health is also part of the issue as well. And you can take that info back to camp coordinators who then make sure NSW Mental Health can follow up on any issues, which is another great thing.

"What I really like about the organisation is that there are only about three people in the whole organisation who get paid. None of these dudes here get paid."

For Canadian, and now Aussie, Kelli Lee volunteering to help was a "no brainer".

Now based in Newcastle, having lived in Australia for a decade, she has a background of "volunteerism" having worked over the world in nursing.

"I just believe in volunteering," she said.

"My daughter lives in Kiama and having seen the fires, this is the one thing I can offer right now, hands on the ground.

"I'll be here in Kangaroo Valley for a week before I have to go home for eye surgery - but then I'm coming back.

"I'm semi-retired and have a long gap and can stay as long as I can. As long as the farmers need fencers and I can help I'd love too."

She admits she's never fenced before but is keen to learn.

"I was a tree planter in Canada for years," she said.

"I was a big backpacker and hiker and seen fit, like-minded people all over the world who just want to get in and get it done."

She said the scene of devastation on the road into the Tallowa Dam Road BlazeAid campsite is "confronting".

"When I drove in on Sunday and saw the burnt bushland for the first time, the actual burn zone, was very confronting," she said.

"My son-in-law is a helicopter pilot in the navy and he showed us photos from above when they were flying and it was just unbelievable.

"We get lots of forest fires in Canada and once they are gone they never regenerate really in our lifetime.

"But the magnitude of this. Our fires don't take over towns - they don't usually burn houses.

"This was quite exceptional and hard to watch."

She said the "international feel" to the Kangaroo Valley camp makes the experience even more special.

"From our first night at dinner only two of the seven of us here were actually born in Australia," she said.

"It's really nice. It opens us up to Australian people, Australian culture, the way of life, the being on the land,

"And how tough Australians are - one week we had the fires, the next the floods."

It's an old saying that an army marches on its stomach and that's also the case for BlazeAid volunteers.

They need to be fed.

In Kangaroo Valley the role of kitchen manager has fallen to Linda Bice.

For more than 20 years she was the staple at the Shoalhaven Rugby Club, feeding the hungry players, officials and guests at Rugby Park, South Nowra after home games.

She's now turned that skill and know-how to helping BlazeAid.

And her role is just as important as anyone out on the tools.

"They've all got to be fed," she said.

"We've, my husband Doug and I, have known about BlazeAid for about five years and have always wanted to work at a camp that was close to home.

"We've just done three weeks at Milton. When they started this camp up in the Valley they asked if we'd come up and help set up."

She said catering for 20 odd volunteers would be nothing compared to feeding often well over 100 players but said the Valley operation would prove to be a "challenge".

"We don't have very good facilities here at the moment," she said "we don't even have an oven so that will make catering a bit harder."

She says she will probably do some cooking at home and then bring it back to the site.

"We will probably also ask for community groups to help us, bringing in meals of a night that we can just heat up which will make it easier," she said.

"And things like slices for morning tea."

BlazeAid provides meals each evening and also provides products for the volunteers to make their own lunches each day.

"We only need to make lunch for those remaining at base camp," she said.

"We play a big role - we are just as important - if we can't feed them, they can't work.

"And they [the volunteers] like their food. Very much so."

As for the menu - "homestyle cooking".

"We'll have lots of noodles and rice which is easy to prepare with the facilities we have and also make easy meals," she said.

"We'll provide whatever we can obtain and make the best with what we've got.

"At the end of a hard day at work, we try our best to give them the best meal we can."

When Siobhan Casey left Galway, on the west coast of Ireland for a working holiday, she had no idea she would end up volunteering at a BlazeAid camp in Kangaroo Valley.

Siobhan moved to Sydney on a working holiday visa in August last year, and has been living in Coogee, working in marketing for a distribution company.

"Like everyone else, I was really affected by the bushfires and the amount of devastation that was caused," she said.

"I donated money to various charities but it still didn't feel like enough.

"I really wanted to make a tangible impact and really help those most in need.

"That's when I started to research different organisations that I could volunteer with and BlazeAid kept coming up.

"I read reviews from people who had volunteered with BlazeAid over the years, and I liked the fact that you're really on the frontline, making tangible differences in local communities that have really been impacted by the fires."

With her six-month contract in Sydney coming to an end, it seemed the perfect time to start volunteering.

"I was incredibly lucky that at the same time, the government announced that volunteer work in fire affected areas now counts towards your regional work for the second year working holiday visa, so I plan on being in the Kangaroo Valley camp for the next three months," she said.

"I started to research the different camps and I noticed that the Kangaroo Valley camp was just about to open so I gave Doug [Doug Chang camp co-ordinator] a call to see if I could get involved.

"It's been really exciting to be involved in the creation of the camp from the very beginning."

As camp administrator, Siobhan takes care of all of the paperwork in the camp, completing weekly reports etc.

"I also try to get out in the field to do some fencing as much as possible," she said.