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A young person from the Land Down Under has appeared in court after reportedly defacing a large blue sculpture of a legendary being by affixing plastic eyes to it.

Amelia Vanderhorst, aged 19, appeared via phone at Mount Gambier Magistrates Court in South Australia on Tuesday, charged with one count of property damage.

Officials commented at the moment of the recent event, the local council said that surveillance video captured a person putting fake eyes on the artwork, which locals have dubbed the “Blue Blob”.

The accused made no plea and informed the judge she was ill, according to news outlets, with the magistrate advising her to secure a lawyer before her upcoming hearing in December.

The following day the alleged incident, the city leader stated that restoration to the much-loved public artwork would be expensive as the adhesive eyes were impossible to be detached without damaging the sculpture.

“This intentional vandalism to a valued community art is unacceptable and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin remarked in September. “It is not innocent amusement, it is costly - it is also disappointing to those members of our society who have embraced the Blue Blob.”

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

At the time the sculpture was first proposed, it received mixed reactions from the area residents due to its price tag and appearance.

Priced at 136,000 Australian dollars ($89,000; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the sculpture depicts a mythical megafauna, with the sculpture’s designers influenced by an ancient anteater-like marsupial discovered in local caves that was “massive, lumbering and fascinating”.