Scottish traditions bring out the tartan in Camperdown for Robert Burns Festival

From traditional Scottish dogs, highland dancing, bagpipes, Celtic music, shortbread competition and a taste of haggis - Camperdown had Scotland covered.

The town was bustling with locals and visitors with many visiting the market or climbing the 100 steps to the top of the Gothic clocktower that dates back to 1896.

Built as a memorial to Thomas Manifold - the son of the region's early European settlers who was killed in a hunting accident in 1895.

Among those climbing the tower on Saturday was Terang's Anne-Maree Close who was in town for the festival, having attended the gala event on Friday night.

On both her maternal and paternal sides, her great great grandmothers were from Scotland and she is still doing research into her family history.

"It's really exciting finding things out like that they used to have a distillery in Scotland. I'm still learning more," she said.

Rotary's Pat Robertson said club members come once a week to wind up the clock's mechanism by hand to keep it running - a task that can take three-quarters of an hour if starting from scratch.

The mechanism, she said, was identical to the one in Big Ben in London - only smaller.

Geelong's Breidi Boyle and Joey Allam kicked up their heels in Camperdown on Saturday with their highland dancing - something they both are only fairly new to.

Six months after having her second child, Breidi decided she wanted to do some exercise and after seeing highland dancers at a Celtic festival decided to join a class.

She then roped in Joey and her young daughter.

With both having family connections to Scotland, it's probably no surprise that they both took up the traditional Celtic dancing.

Breidi's great great grandparents were from Scotland, and her grandfather played the bagpipes. Mr Allam grandfather also used to play in a bagpipe band, and when he started dancing he was handed his grandfather's kilt to wear.

Camperdown has been home to a statue of the renowned Scottish poet Robert Burns - the festival's namesake - since 1882 when it was donated to the town. It sat at the Botanic Gardens until it was vandalised in 2009.

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