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A teenager from the Land Down Under has faced legal proceedings after allegedly defacing a large art piece of a legendary being by applying googly eyes to it.

Amelia Vanderhorst, aged 19, participated remotely at Mount Gambier Magistrates Court in South Australia on that day, charged with one count of property damage.

In a statement at the moment of the recent event, the local council said that CCTV footage captured a person putting artificial eyes on the sculpture, which locals have nicknamed the “Blue Blob”.

The accused made no plea and told the judge she was unwell, according to news outlets, with the judge recommending her to secure a legal representative before her next court date in the final month of the year.

A day after the reported event, the city leader said that repairs to the popular public artwork would be costly as the adhesive eyes could not be removed without harming the art piece.

“This intentional vandalism to a cherished public artwork is inappropriate and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin remarked in September. “It is not harmless fun, it is pricey - it is also frustrating to those people of our society who have welcomed Cast in Blue.”

The mayor said the local government would seek the “significant” repair costs from those responsible for the damage.

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

Priced at A$136,000 (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the artwork represents a legendary giant animal, with the sculpture’s designers influenced by an ancient anteater-like marsupial discovered in local caves that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.