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A teenager from the Land Down Under has faced legal proceedings after reportedly defacing a sizable blue sculpture of a legendary being by affixing googly eyes to it.

The 19-year-old, aged 19, appeared remotely at the local court in South Australia on Tuesday, charged with one count of property damage.

In a statement at the moment of the September incident, the municipal authorities explained that CCTV footage captured a individual placing artificial eyes on the sculpture, which locals have dubbed the “Blue Blob”.

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

The following day the alleged incident, the city leader stated that restoration to the much-loved public artwork would be costly as the adhesive eyes were impossible to be removed without harming the art piece.

“This intentional vandalism to a cherished public artwork is unacceptable and disrespectful,” City of Mount Gambier mayor remarked in mid-September. “It is not harmless fun, it is costly - it is also disappointing to those members of our society who have embraced Cast in Blue.”

She said the local government would pursue the “significant” repair costs from those responsible for the damage.

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

Costing A$136,000 ($89,000; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the artwork represents a mythical megafauna, with the sculpture’s designers inspired by an prehistoric anteater-like marsupial discovered in nearby caverns that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.