A community working group has been raising funds to create a permanent garden to honour those who have lost their lives to HIV/AIDS or been affected by the disease.
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"We want to remember our partners and friends who've died of HIV/AIDS," said Richard Allen, who is driving the community-led initiative, which falls under the auspices of the AIDS Action Council.
He is committed to realising his dream of a memorial garden, ideally with boulders used to represent deceased loved ones.
"Sydney's got theirs, Melbourne's got theirs, but Canberra's got nothing," Mr Allen said.
"We still have a pandemic out there."
His partner passed away in 1994, a year he described as one of the worst for deaths from HIV/ AIDS.
Mr Allen, who was given 12 months to live when he was diagnosed 25 years ago, described himself as in good health.
He said a lot of HIV positive people were "still living quite well with the drugs on the market".
The latest report by the University of New South Wales' Kirby Institute for infection and immunity in society confirmed treatment with antiretroviral therapy helped to control infection.
Philippa Moss, executive director of the AIDS Action Council, applauded the "strong uptake on medications" which not only suppressed the virus but also reduced the risk of transmission.
Ms Moss said the catchphrase was "treatment as prevention" and the government had set targets to "virtually eradicate transmission by 2020", but that more action was needed to achieve the goal.
She said the Kirby Institute's most recent figures indicated the number of newly diagnosed infections in Australia had remained stable for the past three years.
"There was a sharp rise in 2012, which was also reflected in the ACT," she added.
Last year there were 18 new cases of HIV in the capital territory, bringing the total up to 411, according to the Kirby Institute's annual surveillance report 2015.
The Kirby Institute found "the main route of HIV transmission in Australia continues to be sexual contact between men, which accounted for 70 per cent of the cases in 2014".
Ms Moss was concerned by the ongoing "stigma and discrimination" associated with HIV/AIDS, which she said extended to the healthcare services.
She stressed the need for community-led campaigns such as the one Mr Allen was driving.
The Canberra AIDS Memorial Project has raised about $12,000 since Chief Minister Andrew Barr launched the initiative in May 2012.
Mr Allen praised both the ACT Chief Minister and the Minister for Territory and Municipal Services, Shane Rattenbury for being "out of this world" when it came to helping the group.
On Wednesday, the group is raising funds with a 6.30pm screening of Drown at the Dendy Cinemas.
