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A young person from the Land Down Under has faced legal proceedings after allegedly vandalizing a sizable art piece of a legendary being by applying googly eyes to it.

Amelia Vanderhorst, 19 years old, 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 recent event, the local council explained that surveillance video captured a person placing artificial eyes on the sculpture, which residents have nicknamed the “Cast in Blue”.

Ms Vanderhorst did not enter a plea and told the judge she was ill, as reported by news outlets, with the magistrate recommending her to secure a lawyer before her next court date in the final month of the year.

A day after the reported event, the city leader stated that restoration to the popular public artwork would be expensive as the adhesive eyes could not be detached without harming the sculpture.

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

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

At the time the sculpture was first proposed, it received varied responses from the local community due to its cost and appearance.

Costing 136,000 Australian dollars ($89,000; £68,000), the sculpture represents a mythical megafauna, with the sculpture’s designers inspired by an ancient anteater-like marsupial found in nearby caverns that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.