Sungold Milk Camperdown Cup Day 20.1.18

Camperdown /ˈkæmpədaʊn/[2] is a historically significant rural town in southwestern Victoria, Australia, 190 kilometres (120 mi) west of the state capital, Melbourne. At the 2011 census, Camperdown had a population of 2,938.

The Djargurd Wurrung people were the traditional Aboriginal people of the Camperdown area, who had lived in the area for countless generations as a semi-nomadic hunter gatherer society. The first British settlers, the Manifold brothers, arrived in the area from Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) after 1835 to establish sheep and cattle runs. Although some today claim that settlement was met with resistance by some of the local Aborigines, the area's history actually records remarkable instances of mutual assistance and friendship between native and settler peoples. Notable on this account is the family of David Fenton, the Scottish Presbyterian shepherd and drover who built the first house in Camperdown in 1853.[3]
In 1883 Wombeetch Puuyuun (also known as Camperdown George) died at the age of 43 and was buried in a bog outside the bounds of Camperdown Cemetery. His friend, James Dawson was shocked at this burial upon his return from a trip to Scotland, and personally reburied Wombeetch in Camperdown Cemetery. He appealed for money to raise a monument, but finding little public support, he primarily funded the monument himself. The 7 metre obelisk was erected as a memorial to Wombeetch Puuyuun and the Aborigines of the district,[4] and has been described as being still inspiring today.[5]
The town was surveyed in 1851 and named Camperdown after the Scottish naval hero Lord Viscount Adam Duncan the Earl of Camperdown. The first dwelling was erected on the site of the present Commercial Hotel in 1853 [6] and the Post Office opened on 1 January 1854 replacing an earlier one in the area named Timboon.[7]
It became the service centre for the vast pastoral empires of the region. The Port Fairy railway line was opened in 1883,[8] and later extended as part of the line to the southwest of the state.
By the mid 20th century Camperdown had emerged as a more diverse centre for dairy farming which drew on its rich volcanic soil, for woolgrowing and for produce processing industries. By the late 20th century the town had become a major centre for tourism because of its unspoiled 19th century architecture and as a gateway to the southern tourist attractions of the Otway Ranges, the Great Ocean Road and the 'Shipwreck Coast'. In more recent years, however, the drought in Australia in the 21st has affected Camperdown's dairy industry.