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

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

Officials commented at the moment of the September incident, the local council explained that CCTV footage showed a person putting artificial eyes on the sculpture, which locals have dubbed the “Cast in Blue”.

Ms Vanderhorst made no plea and told the court she was unwell, according to media sources, with the judge advising her to secure a legal representative before her upcoming hearing in December.

A day after the reported event, the local mayor stated that repairs to the popular community sculpture would be expensive as the adhesive eyes were impossible to be detached without harming the art piece.

“This wilful damage to a cherished community art is inappropriate and disrespectful,” City of Mount Gambier mayor said in mid-September. “It is not harmless fun, it is pricey - it is also disappointing to those people of our society who have welcomed Cast in Blue.”

She added the council would pursue the “substantial” repair costs from those responsible for the vandalism.

When the artwork was first proposed, it drew varied responses from the local community due to its cost and design.

Priced at 136,000 Australian dollars (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the artwork depicts a mythical megafauna, with the sculpture’s designers inspired by an prehistoric marsupial ant-eater discovered in local caves that was “massive, lumbering and fascinating”.