Source : PERTHNOW NEWS
“WE WON” was the response from supporters of the 50-year-old Ore Obelisk as the City of Perth council decided the future of the historic art piece.
At the city’s May 26 meeting, the council voted 5-1 to retain the Ore Obelisk within the City’s Cultural Collections and to create a physical commemorative display in the Council House foyer — an idea put forward by councillor Chris Patton.
The officers recommendation was to permanently remove the work from the city’s collection and allocate $75,000 to digitally commemorate it.
The officers said it was on the basis that the artwork was compromised and presented an “unacceptable public safety and liability risk”.
Although recently scrutinised for voting against officers’ recommendations, the council decision was welcomed with opened arms by campaigners.
On the Save the Kebab Instagram page, supporters thanked the City of Perth’s elected members who they say “listened carefully, considered the evidence, and recognised the significance” of the work to Perth’s cultural heritage.
“The Ore Obelisk was a major civic artwork commemorating Western Australia reaching one million people,” the post said.
“It stood in Perth for more than 50 years and formed part of the city’s cultural identity and public memory.”
“The surviving elements will now remain in the collection rather than being deaccessioned and erased.”
Although the page felt a sense of “winning” with the result, it spoke of the “irony” of the city spending $118,000 to the memorisation, saying it would have cost the same to properly conserve and reconstruct the work in 2021 — when the Ore Obelisk was removed for safety reasons.
“The destruction of the Ore Obelisk should have never happened,” the page says.
In May 2025, A $250,000 custom-made 7m tall graffiti-covered spaceman was installed out the front of the City of Perth’s Council House, where the Ore Obelisk once stood.
The installation caused significant outcries from residents which triggered a peaceful protest picnic calling on the City of Perth to reinstate the Ore Obelisk and “protect art legacy”.
