For one Palmerston man who has helped hundreds of people whose homes and lives were wrecked by the South Coast bushfires, deeds are more important than words.
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A rough diamond with a gravelly voice, salty language and a mobile phone which runs 24/7, Andrew Dale has shunned public recognition for his mammoth efforts that have resulted in about 70 truckloads of aid being dispatched, mostly before any official agencies got involved.
"This was never about me; this was for the people down there," he says, resting momentarily on the empty wooden pallets left from the donated items.
"Don't make this about me. I can't deal with it."
The Canberra Times only found out about the dozens and dozens of unheralded relief runs to the coast when the owner of the Cobargo Hotel, Dave Allen, "dobbed in" Andrew Dale and his mate in the trucking business, Andrew Toy.
"Make sure Canberra people know what they have have done for us down here," Mr Allen said, as he stood in front of rows of jerry cans, holding fuel paid for by the people of Canberra to keep the generators running around fire-slammed Cobargo when the power went out.
"He's a bloody legend."
That praise will now cost the Cobargo publican $25.
"Anyone who calls me a legend, personally or on social media, gets fined a donation of $25," Mr Dale said with his infectious grin.
"Some people do it deliberately, of course, buggers they are."
This huge logistics effort since mid-December has been run from the car park at the Gungahlin Lakes Club, with a few volunteers growing into platoons of people wanting to help.
"People just started turning up. We moved 28 tonnes of stuff in four days. Unbelievable," he said.
"Volunteers didn't want to go home. They felt helpless and wanted to pitch in. As we've worked, we've shared many different stories. It's been quite an emotional journey in many ways.
"That's the crying tree over there," he said, jerking a thumb over his shoulder. "It's the only one with green grass around it."
This straight-talking, politically incorrect, social-media savvy human motivator with a heart of gold somehow finds time for everyone.
However, it wasn't always that way. Just over a year ago, the "black dog" of personal depression bit him badly when he suffered two major family losses in a row.
"I fell into a deep, dark hole, psychologically," he said. "I was gone. I didn't want to do anything.
"But doing this dug me out. I can honestly say doing this has helped me personally as much as the people down the coast," he said.
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Social media has been his chosen way of communicating, with candid daily video posts and status reports.
People who have donated can watch online vision of where their cash and goods are going.
As the immediate support winds down, he says there's time to focus on other ways to help.
Now he's asking for people to donate good quality, unwanted cars.
"We need reliable, dependable cars for families down at the coast trying to get back to work and putting their lives back together," he said.
"Jaws Automotive at Phillip is doing the blue slips [on the donated cars] for nothing, Lennock Motors is chipping in, Pickles Auctions is helping out, All States Towing is picking up the cars, then we'll get them to the coast."
One car has already gone to a South Coast family with special needs kids.
"Don't let anyone ever, ever tell you that Canberra hasn't got a heart," he said.
"I've seen Canberra's heart and it's a huge one."