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A teenager from the Land Down Under has appeared in court after allegedly defacing a sizable art piece of a legendary being by applying plastic eyes to it.

Amelia Vanderhorst, aged 19, participated remotely at Mount Gambier Magistrates Court in the state of South Australia on Tuesday, facing with a single charge of damaging property.

Officials commented at the time of the recent event, the local council explained that CCTV footage showed a person placing fake eyes on the sculpture, which residents have nicknamed the “Blue Blob”.

Ms Vanderhorst did not enter a plea and informed the judge she was unwell, according to media sources, with the magistrate advising her to secure a legal representative before her next court date in the final month of the year.

A day after the alleged incident, the city leader said that restoration to the much-loved community sculpture would be expensive as the adhesive eyes were impossible to be removed without damaging the art piece.

“This intentional vandalism to a valued public artwork is inappropriate and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin remarked in September. “It is not innocent amusement, it is costly - it is also frustrating to those people of our community who have welcomed Cast in Blue.”

The mayor said the local government would pursue the “significant” restoration expenses from those responsible for the damage.

At the time the artwork was initially suggested, it received varied responses from the area residents due to its cost and appearance.

Priced at A$136,000 (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the artwork depicts a mythical megafauna, with the sculpture’s designers influenced by an prehistoric marsupial ant-eater found in local caves that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.