The Hampden Football League was formed in 1930, when the four founding clubs broke away from the Western District FL.

Terang and Camperdown did not want to continue to travel to Hamilton because their players were farmers who could not spend all day away from the farm to play football, as they had cows to milk.

In 1986, they dropped Coragulac from the club's name, then in 2001 Colac left the Hampden league to join the Geelong FL.

In 1999, Mortlake and Derrinallum merged to form the Western Lions, however the club was not successful and folded during the 2000 season.

Mortlake then attempted a new merger with Terang, which has proven successful and continues to the current day, with matches played in both towns.