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A young person from the Land Down Under has appeared in court after reportedly vandalizing a large art piece of a legendary being by applying plastic eyes to it.

The 19-year-old, aged 19, appeared via phone at Mount Gambier Magistrates Court in South Australia on that day, charged with one count of damaging property.

In a statement at the moment of the September incident, the local council explained that surveillance video showed a individual putting artificial eyes on the sculpture, which locals have dubbed the “Blue Blob”.

Ms Vanderhorst made no plea and informed the court she was ill, according to media sources, with the judge advising her to secure a legal representative before her upcoming hearing in the final month of the year.

A day after the reported event, the local mayor said that repairs to the much-loved public artwork would be expensive as the adhesive eyes were impossible to be removed without damaging the sculpture.

“This wilful damage to a cherished community art is inappropriate and disrespectful,” City of Mount Gambier mayor remarked in mid-September. “It is not harmless fun, it is costly - it is also disappointing to those members of our society who have embraced the Blue Blob.”

She said the local government would seek the “significant” repair costs from those responsible for the vandalism.

At the time the sculpture was initially suggested, it drew varied responses from the local community due to its cost and design.

Costing A$136,000 ($89,000; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the artwork represents a legendary giant animal, with the creators influenced by an prehistoric marsupial ant-eater discovered in local caves that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.