Anger as rubbish dumped at Delacombe trench collapse memorial site

But to find the area, a memorial to Charlie Howkins and his colleague Jack Brownlee, and the site of the Regional Workers Memorial for all who lost their lives at work, littered with rubbish dumped from building sites was even more heartbreaking.

"We went to lay some flowers and found that a massive amount of rubbish has been dumped along the creek," Dr Cormie said.

"It's just really sad to see because they have created a beautiful space down there with plants and trees ... and for it to be treated like this is pretty off.

"I was thinking a lot of things (on Monday). It was just a terrible day for me but I think the site should be respected for a lot of reasons - the fact it's a future site of memorial for all regional Victorians killed at work, for the wildlife in the area, it's a significant place for our First Nation people and it's a beautiful natural creek there."

Ballarat artist Garry Anderson is creating a memorial structure, which will be installed in parkland along the Kensington Creek to create the Regional Workers Memorial near where the two men died in a trench collapse on March 21, 2018.

Their deaths, and the campaigning of Dr Cormie and Jack Brownlee's parents Dave and Janine, led to the introduction of new workplace manslaughter laws.

Styrofoam from house foundations, insulation, panels, gravel, plastic bottles and other building debris made up the bulk of the rubbish along with tree branches that have been dumped there.

Dr Cormie's colleague Tracey Brown had accompanied her to the site on Monday and she too was shocked at the amount of rubbish strewn across the area.

"I'm an indigenous woman from Aoteoroa, New Zealand, and these sites are quite sacred to us, especially the creek running through what we consider a cemetery where people have died. It's a place where Jack and Charlie passed on and and it's treated so disrespectfully."

Both women said builders would know the history of the site, with a memorial fence for the two men prominent in the park.

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"We don't know who it is but as a whole they have to be called out for their disrespectful behaviour not only to Jack and Charlie's families but to First Nations and to the community," Ms Brown said.

"We have Workers Memorial Day coming up and these builders need to be held to account."

A service will be held at the site at 12 noon on April 28 to mark International Workers Memorial Day and remember all regional Victorians who went to work but did not come home.

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