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

The 19-year-old, aged 19, participated via phone at the local court in South Australia on that day, facing with a single charge of property damage.

In a statement at the time of the recent event, the local council said that surveillance video captured a person placing fake eyes on the artwork, which residents have nicknamed the “Blue Blob”.

The accused made no plea and told the judge she was ill, according to media sources, with the magistrate advising her to secure a legal representative before her upcoming hearing in the final month of the year.

A day after the alleged incident, the local mayor stated that repairs to the popular public artwork would be expensive as the stickers could not be removed without damaging the art piece.

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

The mayor added the council would seek the “significant” repair costs from those accountable for the vandalism.

At the time the sculpture was initially suggested, it drew mixed reactions from the local community due to its price tag and appearance.

Costing 136,000 Australian dollars ($89,000; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the sculpture depicts a legendary giant animal, with the sculpture’s designers influenced by an ancient anteater-like marsupial found in nearby caverns that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.