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

Amelia Vanderhorst, aged 19, appeared remotely at the local court in South Australia on that day, charged with one count of damaging property.

Officials commented at the time of the September incident, the municipal authorities said that surveillance video captured a individual putting fake eyes on the sculpture, which locals have dubbed the “Cast in Blue”.

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

The following day the alleged incident, the local mayor said that restoration to the popular public artwork would be costly as the adhesive eyes were impossible to be removed without damaging the sculpture.

“This intentional vandalism to a valued community art is unacceptable and disrespectful,” City of Mount Gambier mayor remarked in mid-September. “It is not innocent amusement, it is costly - it is also disappointing to those people of our community who have welcomed Cast in Blue.”

She added the council would seek the “significant” repair costs from those responsible for the damage.

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

Priced at 136,000 Australian dollars ($89,000; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the artwork depicts a mythical megafauna, with the sculpture’s designers inspired by an ancient anteater-like marsupial discovered in local caves that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.