A year ago, Ben Catanzariti, 21, went to work on a Kingston construction site but he never returned home.
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Workers were using a truck-mounted concrete boom pump to pour concrete at the Dockside apartment development when the pouring boom broke away from the truck and fell to the ground.
Ben, a concreter from Griffith, was hit by the 39-metre boom. He died at the scene; two fellow workers were injured.
"It was a waste of a life and a situation that should not have occurred," Chief Minister Katy Gallagher said at a memorial gathering for Mr Catanzariti on Sunday.
A year to the day after Mr Catanzariti's death, about 100 members of his family, friends and officials gathered at the Kingston foreshore site for the unveiling of a memorial to the hard-working young man and talented sportsman. A park bench has been placed outside the apartment complex, as well as a bubbler with an inscription encouraging visitors to take a drink and pause to remember him. The bench was built by a family friend and the bubbler installed by a friend, Dave.
The concrete at the memorial was laid by Mr Cantanzariti's colleagues at Belconnen Concrete who were with him on the day of the accident.
"There was a lot of things that they were going to do together," his mother Kay Catanzariti said. "I only wish he was here."
The occasion was used to launch a national campaign to encourage young adults to make a will. Mr Catanzariti's death without leaving a will has resulted in a complex legal dispute.
Mrs Catanzariti, with the Australian Council of Trade Unions, is driving a campaign targeting teenagers as they approach 18.