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A young person from the Land Down Under has faced legal proceedings after reportedly defacing a large art piece of a legendary being by affixing plastic eyes to it.

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

Officials commented at the time of the recent event, the municipal authorities explained that surveillance video captured a person putting artificial eyes on the sculpture, which residents have dubbed the “Cast in Blue”.

Ms Vanderhorst did not enter a plea and told the judge she was ill, as reported by media sources, with the judge advising her to secure a legal representative before her next court date in the final month of the year.

The following day the alleged incident, the local mayor stated that restoration to the popular public artwork would be costly as the adhesive eyes were impossible to be removed without damaging the art piece.

“This wilful damage to a valued public artwork 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 community who have embraced Cast in Blue.”

The mayor added the local government would seek the “significant” restoration expenses from those accountable for the vandalism.

At the time the artwork was first proposed, it drew varied responses from the area residents due to its cost and design.

Costing 136,000 Australian dollars (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the sculpture represents a mythical megafauna, with the creators inspired by an prehistoric marsupial ant-eater found in local caves that was “massive, lumbering and fascinating”.