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

The 19-year-old, 19 years old, appeared via phone at the local court in South Australia on that day, charged with one count of damaging property.

Officials commented at the moment of the September incident, the municipal authorities said that surveillance video captured a person putting fake eyes on the artwork, which residents have nicknamed the “Cast in Blue”.

Ms Vanderhorst made no plea and informed the court she was ill, as reported by news outlets, with the magistrate recommending her to secure a legal representative 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 community sculpture would be expensive as the adhesive eyes were impossible to be detached without damaging the art piece.

“This wilful damage to a cherished public artwork is inappropriate and disrespectful,” City of Mount Gambier mayor said in September. “It is not harmless fun, it is costly - it is also disappointing to those people of our community who have welcomed the Blue Blob.”

She added the local government would pursue the “significant” restoration expenses from those responsible for the vandalism.

At the time the sculpture was initially suggested, it drew varied responses from the local community due to its cost and appearance.

Costing A$136,000 (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the sculpture depicts a mythical megafauna, with the creators influenced by an prehistoric marsupial ant-eater found in nearby caverns that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.