As a crowd of around 40 walkers rounded a bend to the new regional workers memorial park in Delacombe, near the site of the trench collapse that claimed the lives of Jack Brownlee and Charlie Howkins, the emotion was visible as the final steps coincided with the time, three years to the day of the tragedy.

"This time, this day three years ago changed all our lives forever. They'll never be the same for everyone here," said Jack Brownlee's mother Janine.

Kelly Dubberley, a close friend of the Brownlee family, organised the Regional Workers Memorial Fund Walk from the Waralilly estate near Geelong, where he was working when he heard news of the tragedy, to the site of the trench collapse in the new Winterfield Estate.

"I would do anything to have the boys back here right now," Mr Dubberley said while standing in front of a temporary memorial that has been relocated to the park from beside the Glenelg Highway where it has stood for the past three years.

"It means the absolute world to us that we were able to pull it off. It's a weird, crazy feeling of sad and happy. This is not just to celebrate the boys we lost here, but to celebrate every single person killed in the workplace."

Mr Dubberley had been prepared to do the walk on his own, but a team of family, friends, workmates and supporters stepped up to join him.

Ms Brownlee had intended to walk just a couple of kilometres each day, while husband Dave drove the support vehicle, but she ended up covering most of the 90km on foot.

"The boys pushed me through, the spirit of the boys and I just realised we were all in this together," she said.

Mr Brownlee said the anniversary was an emotional and tough day.

"All these kids, a lot of these are Jack's mates and they've all pitched in to help. It's three years today (since his death) so it's a very emotional time and we tried to arrive here at this time to add significance to the event.

"To pull up here at the corner of Brownlee Boulevard and Howkins Avenue, at the site where the new memorial park will be built, is ... bittersweet but this is for the better of every worker in Victoria."

Mr Dubberley smashed his $10,000 fundraising goal for the walk, topping $20,000 - enough to pay about 20 per cent of the estimated cost of the memorial which will be designed by Ballarat artist Garry Anderson.

Mr Anderson has been working with the Brownlee family and Lana Cormie, the wife of Charlie Howkins, to design a memorial to commemorate their loved ones and every other victim of workplace death.

Dr Cormie said the walk was a fantastic display of solidarity.

"It shows how much these incidents affect so very many members of the community," she said.

"This memorial will be for all workers because it's so important that they be remembered and that people int he future are reminded how important safety at work is.

"Today is about Jack and Charlie but as we remember them we also remember how very, very many there are who have been killed before and after."

The families also campaigned together for tough new industrial manslaughter laws which were introduced through the Victorian parliament in July 2019, just 16 months after the Delacombe tragedy.

"To watch what they went through, not just with the passing of Jack and Charlie, but to see the effort they went to get the industrial manslaughter laws through to benefit every Victorian going to work ... I wanted to give back to them," Mr Dubberley said

Ballarat Regional Trades and Labour Council secretary Brett Edgington said unions would meet with the City of Ballarat's public art team on Monday to get the logistics of construction of the memorial park underway.

"It's here on the site where Jack and Charlie were killed but we want to make it a universal memorial for workers who have been killed and families who have lost loved ones," he said.

In addition to being a memorial site for family and friends, and parkland for the growing Winterfield community, the Regional Workers Memorial Park will also host an annual service and barbecue on International Workers Memorial Day on April 28 each year.

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Buninyong MP Michaela Settle, who walked with the group on Friday as they came in to Buninyong, said it was vital to have a regional workers memorial for all families.

"In the past we all trip down to Melbourne to Victorian Trades Hall on International Workers Memorial Day for a moving ceremony with boots laid out for every worker who has lost their life ... but it's important to have that regional presence to remind people to reflect and make sure everyone comes home from work," she said.

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