‘Space junk’: huge astronaut statue coming to Perth park is one giant leap too far for many

The statues usually sell for about $1.5m and have been appearing in cities across the world. The City of Perth has plans to erect a 7-metre tall effigy in Stirling Gardens, in the heart of the city Photograph: City of Perth

The City of Perth is under increasing pressure to drop its plans to replace one of the city’s most beloved public artworks with a 7-metre tall effigy of an astronaut, which has been derided as a piece of “factory-produced space junk”.

Until four years ago, Ore Obelisk, affectionately known as The Kebab by the people of Perth, stood in the heritage-listed Stirling Gardens in the heart of the city. The 15-metre work made from local geological minerals, created by the architect, artist and Perth’s first city planner, Paul Ritter, was erected in 1971 to celebrate Western Australia’s population reaching one million, and was one of the city’s first public artworks.