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

Amelia Vanderhorst, 19 years old, appeared via phone at the local court in South Australia on Tuesday, charged with one count of damaging property.

Officials commented at the time of the September incident, the local council explained that CCTV footage captured a person placing fake eyes on the sculpture, which locals have nicknamed the “Blue Blob”.

Ms Vanderhorst made no plea and informed the judge she was unwell, as reported by news outlets, with the magistrate advising her to secure a lawyer before her upcoming hearing in December.

The following day the reported event, the local mayor said that repairs to the popular public artwork would be costly as the stickers were impossible to be detached without harming the art piece.

“This wilful damage to a cherished community art is inappropriate and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin remarked in September. “It is not innocent amusement, it is pricey - it is also disappointing to those members 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.

At the time the artwork was initially suggested, it received mixed reactions from the local community due to its cost and appearance.

Costing 136,000 Australian dollars (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the artwork represents a mythical megafauna, with the sculpture’s designers inspired by an ancient marsupial ant-eater discovered in local caves that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.