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A teenager from the Land Down Under has appeared in court after allegedly vandalizing a sizable blue sculpture of a mythical creature by applying googly eyes to it.

The 19-year-old, aged 19, participated remotely at the local court in the state of South Australia on Tuesday, charged with a single charge of damaging property.

Officials commented at the time of the September incident, the local council explained that surveillance video captured a person placing fake eyes on the sculpture, which locals have dubbed the “Cast in Blue”.

The accused did not enter a plea and told the court she was ill, according to media sources, with the judge 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 local mayor said that restoration to the popular public artwork would be expensive as the stickers could not be removed without harming the sculpture.

“This wilful damage to a valued public artwork is inappropriate and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin said in mid-September. “It is not harmless fun, it is costly - it is also disappointing to those people of our community who have embraced the Blue Blob.”

The mayor said the council would seek the “substantial” repair costs from those accountable for the damage.

At the time the artwork was initially suggested, 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 marsupial ant-eater found in nearby caverns that was “massive, lumbering and fascinating”.