Registrations for the March 1-3 event are open and jubilee committee chairwoman Tricia Batkin, of Cambrian, said while some former residents now living in Australia and the United States had registered, New Zealanders had been slower to apply to come.
''It's going to be a big get-together of the pioneer families from this area, one of the biggest reunions ever held in the district, with people returning from all over.''
Nowadays, the townships between them probably boast a permanent population of about 25 - a far cry from their heyday in the gold-mining era, when the combined population was nearer 1000. St Bathans was also known as Dunstan Creek, Becks was also called White Horse and Cambrian was also known as Welshman's Gully in the early days. Sheep farming was the backbone of the area, along with mining for gold, Mrs Batkin said.
Activities planned for the weekend include a golf tournament on the former Becks Golf Course, tours of Vinegar Hill, Cambrian and St Bathans, a parade of pioneer vehicles and a traditional sports day on the St Bathans Domain with novelty events, plus a shepherds' shemozzle - a kind of obstacle course for dogs and their owners. A ''Ghost to Ghost'' charity walk or run will be staged on Sunday, March 3, in memory of district stalwart, the late Don Harley, with proceeds going to the Motor Neurone Association.
A church service, Grand Variety concert and puppet show will be the final event at the celebrations. On Thursday, February 28, a Gold 150 cairn will be unveiled at the old cemetery in Cambrian and a plaque will be unveiled in the St Bathans cemetery to mark the bodies relocated from Cambrian in 1892, she said. Also on the Thursday, an exhibition of photos of early St Bathans, taken by Frank Pyle, will open in the St Bathans Hall.
