Victims and the families of those who were struck by asbestos-related illness, linked to a former factory in Melbourne's west, have spoken of their shock and anger at having been exposed to the deadly material.

It has emerged this month that dozens of people who lived around the former Wunderlich factory in Sunshine North have contracted cancer, asbestosis and other conditions after asbestos was left unsecured at the site.

Chris Frohlich's mother lived in Ernest Street, about a kilometre from the Wunderlich factory, for 20 years - up until 1965.

She died in September last year of aggressive lung cancer. Her father died of pulmonary fibrosis, and her brother of mesothelioma.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 7 minutes 53 seconds 7 m Victims and families of those with asbestos-related illness describe their shock and anger.

Until now, Mr Frohlich's family had struggled to explain the unlucky run of lung disease-related deaths in the family, but news of the Wunderlich factory's deadly legacy has made things clearer.

"We just couldn't understand how one family could be so unlucky, how four people could come down with lung disease," Mr Frohlich told the ABC.

"My initial feeling [when we found out] was anger. My mum was a vital, healthy woman.

"My kids, her grandkids, have almost forgotten her already, they're not old enough to have a permanent memory. It makes me so angry."

Mr Frohlich's aunt, who has a long-term respiratory condition, left doctors baffled. He said doctors asked her numerous times whether she had been exposed to asbestos, but she said no.

"I've heard stories from my aunt [this week] about how the three of them used to play behind the factory, and they grabbed lumps of the white, what we now know to be asbestos, and used to draw hopscotch courts with it," he said.

Piecing together the Wunderlich puzzle

Mr Frohlich is in talks with Slater and Gordon lawyers about whether legal action is possible against CSR or James Hardie, which both owned the Wunderlich factory site before it was closed down.

Slater and Gordon lawyer Margaret Kent was responsible for putting together the pieces of the Wunderlich puzzle.

As longstanding asbestos litigation lawyer and resident of the inner-west, Ms Kent noticed the names of a number of Sunshine North streets popping up in the firm's case files.

Four members of Chris Frohlich's family contracted asbestos-related illnesses reportedly linked to the factory in Sunshine North. ( ABC )

She then realised they were all within a certain radius of the old Wunderlich factory, which manufactured asbestos sheeting for 50 years up until the early 1980s.

"It's amazing to me how many people we had heard of, or had contact with, who played in the back of the factory," Ms Kent said.

"It's what kids did in North Sunshine, particularly during the 50s, 60s and 70s, there weren't many other places.

"But also we have had contact with people who worked near the factory, went to school near the factory or who simply lived near it.

"[We also contacted] the people who were at home who had family members who [were] working in the factory, who then washed the clothes.

"All those circumstances have given rise to diagnoses."

Ms Kent said Slater and Gordon had until recently handled the cases of "tens" of people who contracted asbestos-related illnesses or died in this way, but did not work in the factory.

Since concerns about the Wunderlich factory were made public last week, the firm has been contacted by up 20 more people who had relatives die after living near the factory.

'It's just like sitting on a barrel of dynamite'

Ms Kent likened the Wunderlich case to Australia's greatest asbestos tragedy, at Wittenoom, in Western Australia.

More than 2,000 people, many of them the wives and children of mine workers, have died due to exposure to asbestos at the nearby mine or in the town of Wittenoom itself.

Ms Kent said it was known early last century that significant exposure to asbestos was dangerous, and since the early 1960s that even a small amount could be deadly, yet asbestos waste was left lying around behind the Wunderlich factory.

Jim Trickey, who played in asbestos waste from the Wunderlich factory as a child, has developed pleural plaque on his lungs. ( ABC )

"I'm critical of the fact that that knowledge was available and the factory appears, from everything we've heard, to have been run in such a way that it appears loose asbestos was available for members of the public to get amongst, including children," she said.

"That visible asbestos emanated, according to some of the witnesses, from the factory. That's a situation that shouldn't have happened."

Jim Trickey grew up near the factory, and like Chris Frohlich's mother and her siblings, played in the asbestos waste as a child.

Mr Trickey now has pleural plaque on the surface of his lungs, which can remain benign. But his sister Joyce paid the ultimate price and died of asbestosis two years ago.

Mr Trickey said he cannot help feel responsible, as he used to bring the asbestos back to their house on his clothes.

"I went up to see her the day she died and I kissed her on her forehead and - I was so upset about it you know - she had a terrible death with it," he said.

"So it makes me think now what is going to happen to me? If I've got this is there any prevention of it, is there any cure, is there anything they can give me to stop it going into the lungs?

"So it's just like sitting on a barrel of dynamite."

Watch the full report on ABC TV at 7.30.