The families of two men killed one year ago - Dave and Janine Brownlee, Lana Cormie and Helen Howkins - in a Delacombe trench collapse, have turned their grief into a united force for workplace safety.

It was a sunny March 21 last year when their lives were changed - and thus linked - forever after the Brownlee's son Jack and Dr Cormie's husband Charlie were killed in a workplace incident.

It will be still be a long time before the families know exactly how their loved ones came to be killed among tonnes of rock and gravel with the court case ongoing.

Ballarat construction company Pipecon is facing two charges over the deaths.

For Mrs Brownlee, who herself was in hospital on the day, it was a mother's worst nightmare.

"The one thing I always worried about, especially with boys is going out to nightclubs and things was the one punch which you hear a lot about," she said.

"As a mother that's what you worry about in the back of your mind, you never think that you can lose your baby in the workplace."

Dr Cormie said she has lived with the regret that her children will grow up without a dad.

"We had the best life, we were so happy," she said.

"We have two beautiful children and we were building our life together, working on our home, doing it up.

"We'd finally found our forever home and were just making it ours.

"Charlie and I would sit on the verandah sometimes at home and say 'how did we get it so good?', little did we know it was about to end."

Dr Cormie said she found out something was wrong when she saw the helicopter in the sky

"Luckily I was just working around the corner from the site, otherwise I would never have known what had happened," she said.

"No-one ever rang to say Charlie had died and Jack was dying.

"If I hadn't seen the helicopter hovering above work and knew that something was going on, it would have been 6.30pm that night when Charlie didn't pick the kids up from daycare or the police turning up at my front door when I would have found out. Now I can't even look at helicopters. 

"People say isn't it terrible that you found out on social media and the press, but if it wasn't for them, we wouldn't have found out at all."

Mr Brownlee said he was at the site about 2.30pm.

"I got up there, I said to the officer, I think my boy is in this and he asked 'who I was?' and came back and said, 'yep, it's your son'.

"He said, you're best to hightail it off to Melbourne because they were putting him into the ambulance. I tried to get to him, but they wouldn't let me go and see him, they wouldn't let me down there. Jack was denied his right to see his dad."

Dr Cormie said to this day the families don't know exactly what happened.

"The reality is with the investigation, the families are kept completely in the dark," she said. "They don't tell us anything, the only thing we know is the research we've done ourselves with our own investigating.

"The lack of knowing is extremely traumatising and very distressing, we ask for any information we can get from anyone who may know something."

Mr Brownlee said after Dr Cormie initially made contact after both men's funerals, the families had been determined to be there for each other.

"We've been thrown into this situation, we had to get our strength from each other," he said. 

"I guess we've been, while lucky is the wrong word, that we have met some awesome people. Anytime we can ring each other," Dr Cormie added.

Every year, around 30 Victorians and 180 people around the country are killed in workplace accidents.

Since the tragedy, the families have joined others around the nation in fighting for a change to work safety laws.

"There's thousands of people around the country in our position," Dr Cormie said.

"It's very difficult, you're talking about mums that can't cope and have DHS coming to take their children away.

"You have people who now cannot pay their rent and end up sleeping in their car. It's absolutely devastating, the whole system isolates people and you have no voice."

Mrs Brownlee said she felt for people who did not know how to access support.

"For people who don't have an English speaking background, they don't know who to turn to, there's no support out there being promoted, you've got to navigate the system yourself, because there's no-one who will come to you," she said.

"It's not what you think the system is, when you lose a loved one in workplace. The only people that really supported us was the union and Ballarat Trades Hall who come to our door.

"Neither of our boys were members, but they've been the ones who have helped us navigate through the system, otherwise we would have been left as the three of us on our own."

The families are now determined to be spokespeople for all others in similar position.

"It's now our job to be a voice and push for change, that's what we want and that's all we've got now," Mrs Brownlee said.  

"We don't want anyone to go through what we're going through and if they do, we want changes made for the future."

Last year the families were present for the handing down of a senate report into workplace safety in Australia which recommended 34 changes to the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

"It was the first time we had a voice," Dr Cormie said.

"It was the first time anyone had cared about our point of view and having dealt with the system, where we aren't considered stake holders, Charlie and Jack weren't recognised by the current laws.

"The Occupational Health and Safety Act is risk based, not outcome based which is distressing when the outcome is so tragic.

"As a result of them not being considered a factor, we as families aren't a stakeholder either. The inquiry was the first time we'd been considered an important part of the solution and we were asked our opinion.

"They wrote a really fantastic report and now we are hoping the Federal Government will enact all 34 recommendations."

Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews also made the introduction of Industrial Manslaughter laws in Victoria one of his top election commitments and was recently in Ballarat to announce the formation of a working group to put those laws into place.

To Lana, Dave and Janine,

I understand that today marks 12 months without Charlie and Jack.

That means 12 months of missed moments - big and small. Birthdays, anniversaries, family dinners and time spent with mates. Twelve months of a void that can't ever be filled.

I'll never forget meeting with you in the weeks that followed that terrible tragedy.

Even then, in the most awful of circumstances, you were remarkable in your strength.

You told me about your men. About who they were, and how they lived. And you told me that our laws had to change.

Because of you - and your courage in sharing your story - the issue of workplace safety is now being given the national attention it deserves.

And because of you, Victoria's new workplace manslaughter laws will be a reality.

Under this legislation, employers will face fines of almost $16 million, while individuals whose negligence results in the death of a worker will be held to account, facing up to 20 years in jail.

Just as importantly, these laws will change our culture, making sure that workplace safety is given the priority it deserves.

Because as you told me: every family deserves to know their loved ones will make it home safe.

Daniel Andrews

Dr Cormie said above all the families wanted to thank everyone who has helped them over the past year.

"I guess the unions were an unexpected and amazing helper because our boys weren't members," she said.

"The community of Ballarat has been a fantastic support as of course has our family and friends.

"Also, the other people who have also had loved ones killed, we met them through the Senate inquiry in Canberra and the support each other is able to provide is amazing because no-one else really understands what you go through." 

The Courier approached Pipecon for comment but it did not respond.

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