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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 affixing googly eyes to it.

The 19-year-old, aged 19, participated via phone at Mount Gambier Magistrates Court in South Australia on Tuesday, charged with a single charge of damaging property.

Officials commented at the time of the September incident, the municipal authorities said that surveillance video captured a individual putting fake eyes on the artwork, which locals have nicknamed the “Blue Blob”.

The accused did not enter a plea and told the court she was ill, as reported by media sources, with the judge advising her to secure a legal representative before her next court date in December.

The following day the reported event, the city leader stated that restoration to the popular community sculpture would be expensive as the adhesive eyes were impossible to be removed without damaging the sculpture.

“This intentional vandalism to a valued community art is inappropriate and disrespectful,” City of Mount Gambier mayor 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 added the local government would pursue the “substantial” restoration expenses from those responsible for the vandalism.

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

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