She and her husband each contributed $210 to the Immigration Place scheme to have each of their parents, from England and Scotland, acknowledged on plaques on the handrails of what would one day be Immigration Bridge.

When the plan was changed in 2009 to a monument in the Parliamentary Triangle instead of a bridge, Ms McIntosh was happy to remain part of the project.

“I felt confident it would go ahead because I felt it was a generous alternative, and at least there was still something physical there,” she said.

But today, 10 years down the track, there is no sign of the much-lauded monument, or of the money donated by almost 7000 people to the project.

Immigration Place, the charity established to manage the project, seems have shut up shop; emails remain unanswered, and most of the board members have either stepped down or died.

Three years after a well-publicised competition for a monument design was wrapped up, the site near the National Archives in Parkes remains empty, and the thousands who contributed have been told nothing.

Ms McIntosh wants answers.

“I would actually have more respect for any of those board members if they just said, ‘Look, this is the reason, board members have passed away, we're not in a position to continue with the project, and here's your money back’,” she said. “An apology would be the honest thing to do.”

She said she held no hope of ever seeing her money again.

A spokesman from the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission confirmed Immigration Place Australia had been deregistered as a charity in April 2018, because the commission had not received any annual reports for two years.

He said this meant donors had no recourse through the commission, and instead had to contact their state Fair Trade body.

Access Canberra, the ACT government agency responsible for fundraising, confirmed it had received inquiries about Immigration Place.

A spokeswoman said consumers who were unable to resolve their concerns with a charity should contact Access Canberra, or, if they lived interstate, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

In December, the ABC reported that a federal investigation was under way into the charity, but a spokeswoman for the Australian Federal Police would only confirm it had “received a referral regarding allegations made against an Australian NFP”.

Remaining board members, including prominent local businessman Emmanuel Notaras, are adamant the project is in hiatus, and can still be resurrected with an injection of funds and Commonwealth support.

“I don't want to sound dismissive of these people's concerns. For some people, $100 - and a thing that they wanted to demonstrate to their parents of how much they appreciated the journey they'd made to the country - it's very important to them,” Mr Notaras said.

“But what people have got to appreciate too is these things don't happen overnight, particularly when there's no money.”

While he said he had spent a significant amount of his own money on the project, he was confident that the Commonwealth government would eventually support the monument, although there had been little traction on that front.

“I can't get any resonance within government, they're in election mode now, and I know that there's some people within parliament that are great supporters of the project,” he said.

“I'm just hoping that after the election, when the dust settles and we know who has formed government, I'll make a more resolute approach to them.”

But the National Capital Authority, which approved the original project and the site for the monument, said it had been trying in vain to find out what was happening with the project.

“Since completion of the design competition, the [authority] has sought to contact the proponent to determine the status of the project,” a spokeswoman said. “The proponent has not responded to these inquiries.”

Mr Notaras said he had not been contacted by either the authority or the police about Immigration Place.

He said there had never been any understanding with donors that there was an entitlement to get the money back.

“As a gesture of goodwill, when the project changed from a bridge to Immigration Place, we said if you want your money back, you can have it back,” he said.

“That was published on the website, some people sought a refund and they got it, but there was a sunset clause in it that said after a particular time we can't refund this money because we need these resources to go forward and carry the project on.”

Cooma-based engineer Geoff Bowland, also a committee member and involved with the project from its inception, said if donors wanted their money back, they’d be waiting for a long time.

“I can't see any money being given back because there's no money to give back,” he said. “I don't think there's any money promised to give back that I know of. Unless someone takes it up and drives it forward, nothing will happen.”

He said at least $6 million was needed to get the monument built, and ideally the money would be provided by a rich benefactor “like Dick Smith”.

He said all of the money raised by the project - about $700,000 from donors and a further $445,000 from fundraising - had been spent on advertising, consultants and the design competition.

“The money doesn't exist anymore, and no one on the committee was paid money for doing their committee work for years and years,” he said.

“Any money was paid to some consultants to try and move it along, and they all played their part. All the books would be in order there, there would be nothing untoward in the whole thing.”

He said he was saddened to hear that donors were upset about the money they had spent on what appeared to be a permanently stalled project.

“The biggest disappointment is nothing happening, not the $100 that's been lost,” he said.

“It's a lost dream, that's the whole thing, not the lost money. The dream needs to be the thing that's picked up. The money - all of the sizes of donations I saw - wouldn't hurt anyone.”

Ms McIntosh said she was disgusted that her concerns and unanswered emails were being dismissed.

“It's not a ‘dream’ - this leaflet from day one says every Australian family is invited to contribute their name to the bridge to be immortalised on the handrail in perpetuity,” she said.

“It made people believe that this project was going to go ahead. It had gotten past the approval stage.

“I feel that Mr Notaras, being a very well-known businessman, would not run his own business in that way.”