carved from sandstone in the 1830s and based on the earliest painting of the Bard. Efforts to restore the statue led to a festival celebrating the town's connection with Burns being held in 2012 and then annually. Local government Originally, Camperdown was part of the East Riding of the Shire of Hampden, which was incorporated in 1857. On 9 September 1952, Camperdown severed and incorporated as a separate borough. It became a town on 21 January 1959. See Town of Camperdown. On 23 September 1994, the Town was abolished, and merged with Shire of Hampden, most of Shire of Heytesbury and parts of Colac, Mortlake and the area around Princetown on the Great Ocean Road into the Shire of Corangamite. The Town of Camperdown was not subdivided into wards, and the nine councillors represented the entire area. Transport Camperdown is situated on the Princes Highway (A1), which is the main through road and also the main street (Manifold Street). A dual carriageway with a large central reservation and secondary service street runs through the centre of town. The highway runs west to Terang and beyond to Warrnambool and east to Colac and beyond to Geelong. Secondary roads include the Camperdown-Lismore Road which heads north to Lismore and the Camperdown-Cobden Road (C164) which heads south to Cobden. Just west at Gnotuk is the Darlington Road (C173) which leads north to Darlington. Road coaches (buses) provide links within Camperdown, to neighbouring towns and nearby cities (mainly V/Line) and these services include Cobden, Timboon, Simpson and the city of Ballarat. The town's railway station is served by V/Line passenger services on the Warrnambool line linking it to the cities of Warrnambool, Geelong and beyond to Melbourne. Community The town has many sporting clubs. Archery, badminton, cricket, cycling, golf, horse riding, lawn bowls, squash and tennis, water skiing and yachting have competitions in and around the town. The Camperdown community is heavily involved in competitive sport with the principal sport being Australian Rules Football. The town has a football team playing in the Hampden Football League. Camperdown has a horse racing club, the Camperdown Turf Club, which holds one race meeting a year, the Camperdown Cup meeting in January. Camperdown is also home to the Lakes & Craters International Horse Trials, founded by Barry Roycroft in 1978. Golfers play at the Camperdown Golf Club on Lake Bullen Merri Road. There are also many groups