More than 1,000 Canberra families whose houses were torn down to remove the threat of loose-fill Mr Fluffy insulation will soon have a dedicated public place to commemorate the homes and loved ones lost to the asbestos crisis.
The "place of reflection" will be housed at the National Arboretum, in the form of a forest shelter. Though its exact location is yet to be decided.
Sustainable Building Minister Rebecca Vassarotti said the shelter would form part of the healing process for thousands of Canberrans, who owned, lived in or worked on a Mr Fluffy house — of which there were 1,029 across 56 suburbs.
"We heard from the Canberra community that creating a place of reflection was a really important way to really mark what had happened," Ms Vassarotti said.
"It was important to find a location that was owned by all Canberrans and also was accessible."
The National Arboretum in Canberra is already home to other memorial gardens, including the AIDS Garden of Reflection and the Gift of Life Garden to commemorate organ and tissue donation.
'Losing the garden was as bad as losing the house'
In 2019, a community and expert reference group recommended a memorial, similar to that erected in memory of the 2003 Canberra bushfires, made up of plant cuttings that represented not only the homes lost by Mr Fluffy families, but their gardens too.
Former Fluffy owner Kathleen Read tended to her Watson garden lovingly before she reluctantly sold her property to the ACT government in its 2014 buyback scheme.
In her previous home, she had created her own backyard sanctuary for her family, affectionately called a "secret garden" by a neighbour, due to the deliberate planting around the fence line.
"Losing the garden was… it was hard, it was as bad as losing the house," she said.
For Kathleen, the government's planned place of reflection at the arboretum means "absolutely nothing."
"To me, I think it's their way of accepting that, yes, this happened, but putting up this thing, this shelter … out the way," she said.
During the buybacks, the ACT government stored the keys from over 1,000 of the houses, and Kathleen would prefer they be used as part of a display or installation.
"Hang them in the Legislative Assembly chamber where it is a constant always reminder to them that people vote for them and they're meant to have some compassion about the way they treat people," she said.
Lingering concern of potential health risk
But another former Fluffy owner, Jennifer Cameron, believes the place of reflection is a "nice idea".
"I think the people who don't know anything about it of course will be interested, I suppose," she said.
"People who are Mr Fluffy residents — who lost their homes — I just think it's somewhere that we can go and remember it, those who want to. I guess there are some who don't want to."
Jennifer and her husband Ian are now settled in their new west Belconnen home after moving a few suburbs over seven years ago, but the unease of the potential health risk for their now adult children remains a lingering concern.
The ABC asked the Loose Fill Asbestos Coordination team for the official number of deaths linked to asbestos exposure from Mr Fluffy and was told there were "no complete records available to understand or quantify the full extent of people in our community that have had exposure risks".
A 2017 ANU study established seven mesothelioma cases among Mr Fluffy residents over a 30-year period.
In March, the ACT government set up a $16 million Asbestos Disease Support Scheme to provide financial support for those exposed to loose-fill asbestos insulation.
Since then the scheme has paid out "fewer than 10" applications, totalling an estimated $3.4 million.
It was set up after the advocacy of James Wallner, who dedicated the final months of his life to campaigning for justice for asbestos victims. He died in 2021 from mesothelioma caused by exposure as a child living in a Mr Fluffy house.
It was the Commonwealth government of the day that allowed the asbestos insulation to be pumped into homes in the national capital between 1968 and 1979.
'What we can learn from these kinds of experiences'
A subsequent attempt to "clean" the houses in the late 1980s and early 1990s did not work, leading to the decision — 50 years after the Mr Fluffy business began operating — to demolish all affected homes.
A total of 1,010 residential properties have now been torn down with 19 known houses remaining, although Mr Fluffy homes have been newly uncovered in recent years.
The ACT government is now seeking community feedback on the proposed messages and accompanying stories told through the forest shelter.
"We do hope this will be seen as a really positive move in terms of really acknowledging the experience of thousands of people in Canberra," Ms Vassarotti said.
"Telling people's stories in terms of what it meant to them and what we can learn from these kinds of experiences."
Jennifer Cameron offered a single message: that the mistakes of the past "never be made again because the government knew that it was asbestos and they let it continue".
