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A teenager from the Land Down Under has appeared in court after reportedly vandalizing a sizable blue sculpture of a legendary being by applying googly eyes to it.

Amelia Vanderhorst, aged 19, appeared via phone at Mount Gambier Magistrates Court in the state of South Australia on that day, facing with one count of damaging property.

Officials commented at the moment of the recent event, the local council explained that CCTV footage captured a individual putting artificial eyes on the sculpture, which residents have nicknamed the “Cast in Blue”.

The accused did not enter a plea and informed the judge she was ill, according to news outlets, with the magistrate recommending her to find a lawyer 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 much-loved public artwork would be expensive as the adhesive eyes were impossible to be detached without harming the art piece.

“This intentional vandalism to a valued community art is inappropriate and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin remarked in September. “It is not innocent amusement, it is costly - it is also frustrating to those members of our society who have embraced the Blue Blob.”

She said the local government would pursue the “significant” restoration expenses from those accountable for the damage.

At the time the artwork was initially suggested, it received mixed reactions from the area residents due to its cost and design.

Costing 136,000 Australian dollars (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; £68,000), the sculpture represents a mythical megafauna, with the sculpture’s designers inspired by an prehistoric marsupial ant-eater found in nearby caverns that was “massive, lumbering and fascinating”.