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A teenager from the Land Down Under has faced legal proceedings after allegedly defacing a sizable blue sculpture of a mythical creature by applying plastic eyes to it.

Amelia Vanderhorst, 19 years old, appeared remotely at Mount Gambier Magistrates Court in South Australia on Tuesday, charged with one count of property damage.

Officials commented at the moment of the recent event, the local council said that surveillance video showed a individual placing fake eyes on the sculpture, which residents have nicknamed the “Blue Blob”.

The accused did not enter a plea and informed the judge she was ill, as reported by media sources, with the judge advising her to find a lawyer before her upcoming hearing in the final month of the year.

The following day the alleged incident, the city leader stated that repairs to the much-loved public artwork would be expensive as the adhesive eyes could not be removed without harming the sculpture.

“This intentional vandalism to a cherished public artwork is unacceptable and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin remarked in mid-September. “It is not innocent amusement, it is pricey - it is also frustrating to those people of our community who have embraced Cast in Blue.”

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

At the time the artwork was first proposed, it received mixed reactions from the local community due to its cost and design.

Costing A$136,000 (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the artwork represents a mythical megafauna, with the sculpture’s designers inspired by an ancient anteater-like marsupial discovered in nearby caverns that was “massive, lumbering and fascinating”.