FORMER Fremantle federal MP Melissa Parke had a hand in a protest last Friday August 3 alongside the Eliza statue in Crawley.

She was highlighting risks to an important ancient rock art gallery in the North West.

East Fremantle resident and Eliza’s sculptor Tony Jones and his son Ben organised the demonstration and dress-up, which coincided with a forum on the Burrup Peninsula.

The forum was attended by international experts looking at ways of speeding up world heritage listing of the site.

Acidic

Its 50,000-year-old hieroglyphs, which contain the earliest depiction of the human face on the planet, are being increasingly crowded by industrial plants, including a fertiliser factory and liquid natural gas refinery.

Experts have warned that acidic emissions from the industry are damaging the irreplaceable art, but the WA government is planning to allow three more industrial projects to go ahead.

Mr Jones has recently worked on an unrelated protest with Ms Parke, who suggested he dress up Eliza for the Burrup cause this time around, as she’s patron of a scientific organisation that’s taken an interest.