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

Amelia Vanderhorst, 19 years old, participated via phone at Mount Gambier Magistrates Court in South Australia on Tuesday, facing with a single charge of property damage.

Officials commented at the moment of the recent event, the municipal authorities explained that CCTV footage showed a person placing artificial eyes on the sculpture, which residents have nicknamed the “Cast in Blue”.

Ms Vanderhorst did not enter a plea and informed the court she was unwell, as reported by media sources, with the judge advising her to secure a legal representative before her upcoming hearing in December.

A day after the alleged incident, the local mayor said that repairs to the much-loved public artwork would be expensive as the stickers were impossible to be detached without damaging the art piece.

“This intentional vandalism to a cherished public artwork is inappropriate and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin remarked in mid-September. “It is not harmless fun, it is costly - it is also disappointing to those members of our society who have welcomed Cast in Blue.”

She said the council would pursue the “significant” repair costs from those responsible for the damage.

At the time the sculpture was first proposed, it received varied responses from the local community due to its cost and appearance.

Costing 136,000 Australian dollars ($89,000; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the artwork represents a legendary giant animal, with the sculpture’s designers inspired by an prehistoric marsupial ant-eater found in nearby caverns that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.