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A young person from the Land Down Under has faced legal proceedings after allegedly defacing a sizable art piece of a mythical creature by applying plastic eyes to it.

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

In a statement at the moment of the September incident, the municipal authorities explained that surveillance video captured a person placing artificial eyes on the sculpture, which locals have dubbed the “Cast in Blue”.

Ms Vanderhorst did not enter a plea and told the judge she was ill, as reported by news outlets, with the judge advising her to secure a legal representative before her upcoming hearing in the final month of the year.

The following day the alleged incident, the city leader stated that repairs to the much-loved public artwork would be expensive as the adhesive eyes 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 frustrating to those members of our society who have embraced Cast in Blue.”

The mayor said the council would seek the “significant” restoration expenses from those responsible for the vandalism.

At the time the artwork was first proposed, it received mixed reactions from the local community due to its cost and design.

Priced at A$136,000 ($89,000; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the sculpture depicts a legendary giant animal, with the sculpture’s designers influenced by an prehistoric marsupial ant-eater found in nearby caverns that was “massive, lumbering and fascinating”.