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A teenager from the Land Down Under has faced legal proceedings after reportedly vandalizing a large art piece of a mythical creature by affixing googly eyes to it.

Amelia Vanderhorst, aged 19, appeared remotely at Mount Gambier Magistrates Court in South Australia on Tuesday, charged with a single charge of property damage.

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

The accused made no plea and informed the judge she was ill, according to media sources, with the judge advising her to secure a legal representative before her next court date in December.

A day after the reported event, the local mayor said that restoration to the much-loved public artwork would be costly as the stickers were impossible to be removed without harming the art piece.

“This wilful damage to a valued community art is inappropriate and disrespectful,” City of Mount Gambier mayor said in September. “It is not innocent amusement, it is costly - it is also disappointing to those members of our society who have welcomed the Blue Blob.”

The mayor added the local government would seek the “substantial” repair costs from those responsible for the vandalism.

When the sculpture was first proposed, it received varied responses from the area residents due to its price tag and design.

Priced at A$136,000 (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the artwork depicts a mythical megafauna, with the creators influenced by an ancient marsupial ant-eater discovered in local caves that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.