Ben Murphy, 26, a popular local sportsman, died when his ute collided with the rear of a turning tractor on the Burley Griffin Way at Yenda on Wednesday morning.

Tributes have poured in for Mr Murphy, who has been remembered as a man with a heart of gold and an insatiable appetite for life.

"He didn't hold back; he lived every day to the absolute fullest," close friend Brendan Hicken said.

“He was the most positive bloke you could ever meet and I never once heard him say a bad word about another person.”

Mr Murphy’s family, friends and long-term partner Phoebe Violi have been left devastated by the accident, which occured just three days after Christmas.

A draftsman with local firm PHL Surveyors since he left school, Mr Murphy was also a highly talented sportsman, playing first grade cricket for the Yenda Jets and A-grade basketball.

He had a deep passion for music, attending dozens of concerts and festivals around Australia and was also a car fanatic, obsessing over his two HSV Clubsport vehicles and never missing a Summernats event.

But to his mates, it was simply Mr Murphy’s lust for life that will stay with them forever.

“He didn’t have a problem in the world but if you had one he was the first to sit down and talk to you about it,” friend Dean Cunial said.

“If you couldn’t buy yourself a beer, he was the sort of guy who would buy you 10 just so he could have one with you.

“He loved to party and he loved to burn a hole in the dance-floor and he had more friends than anyone I’ve ever known ... nobody who met Ben will ever forget him.”

Mr Murphy attended Griffith Public School, Yanco Agricultural High School and in his senior years, Griffith High.

He was “smart as a whip”, Mr Cunial said, with a distinctive, loping walk and an infectious laugh.

“He could turn up to an exam without studying and still get 90 per cent,” Mr Cunial said.