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A young person from the Land Down Under has appeared in court after reportedly vandalizing a sizable art piece of a mythical creature by affixing plastic eyes to it.

Amelia Vanderhorst, aged 19, appeared via phone at the local court in South Australia on that day, charged with a single charge of property damage.

Officials commented at the time of the September incident, the local council explained that CCTV footage captured a person placing fake eyes on the sculpture, which locals have nicknamed the “Blue Blob”.

The accused did not enter a plea and told the court she was ill, as reported by news outlets, with the judge advising her to find a legal representative before her upcoming hearing in December.

The following day the alleged incident, the local mayor said that repairs to the much-loved community sculpture would be expensive as the stickers could not be detached without harming the sculpture.

“This intentional vandalism to a valued public artwork is unacceptable and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin remarked in mid-September. “It is not innocent amusement, it is pricey - it is also frustrating to those members of our society who have embraced Cast in Blue.”

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 received mixed reactions from the local community due to its price tag and design.

Priced at A$136,000 ($89,000; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the sculpture depicts a mythical megafauna, with the creators influenced by an prehistoric marsupial ant-eater discovered in nearby caverns that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.