While many young boys grow up admiring their fathers, Dwight O'Connell had something big to brag about when it came to his dad.

Gordon O'Connell was the winner of the one and only Great Australian Camel Race, which took place in 1988.

The now-76-year-old played a pivotal role in what might be considered the greatest test of endurance in Australian history.

He joined a group of competitors who successfully completed a gruelling 3,300-kilometre competition that twisted through the harsh outback.

It was a test of both bravery and stamina with competitors battling torrential rain, fatigue, and outbreaks of illness to reach the finish line.

"These guys achieved a hell of a lot back in the day and it's never really been showcased or brought up again," Dwight O'Connell said.

And now, almost 40 years later, he is working to preserve the legacy of the event, bringing together the original competitors, and looking to develop an on-farm attraction dedicated to educating future generations.

Once-in-a-lifetime experience

The 69 competitors who took off from Uluru on April 23, 1988 had little idea what they were in for.

Competitor Jill Colwell, who came in sixth, said she could never have imagined what the journey ahead would involve.

"I thought it sounded like a really nice holiday, very peaceful and enjoyable, just seeing the Australian countryside," she said.

"Little did I realise how tough it was going to be."

Like many other competitors, she became seriously ill after there was an outbreak of Shigella dysentery among the group in the Simpson desert, far away from any medical facilities.

She also endured "flies, fatigue, heat and dust", as well as a sense of isolation that she had never experienced before. 

"If I slipped back in the race you had no one to call on, it was just you and your camel. So there were a lot of things that you had to work through," she said.

Ms Colwell also famously lost her camel Tiki who temporarily abandoned her in the middle of desert, but returned shortly after.

But she believed every competitor who successfully completed the race found an inner strength they did not know they had prior to the event.

"You just gave up, like a lot of people had to, or you kept going and I was one of the ones that decided I'd just keep going," she said.

"It was a good lesson in life, that you'll come across things that are very difficult to do and there's ways to achieve them."

Ms Colwell was among just 41 competitors who crossed the finish line, and of those only 28 had completed the entire race.

ABC News reported at the time that "World Safari adventurer" Alby Mangels was among those who dropped out.

But those who did make it across the line share a special bond that still exists 36 years later.

Preserving the legacy

Dwight O'Connell's desire to preserve the legacy of the Great Australian Camel Race originally sprung from a dream to reunite the competitors from the bicentennial event.

He reached out to competitors from across Australia to invite them to attend, finding himself intrigued by the fascinating stories he was hearing.

"When people came to me and told me their stories and started talking about a reunion I thought, well, my camel farm needs to tell the story of everyone," he said.

He has been gathering information in the hopes of establishing a museum, based on his farm in the Whitsundays, that would tell the story of the race.

"A lot of these competitors are telling me 'I've got all this information, but when I pass my children aren't really interested in it, so you can have it'," he said.

He hosted an on-farm reunion in early October, inviting competitors from across Australia to bring along any old items from the race and share their memories from it.

"There's so many amazing stories and they're hilarious, and the characters are amazing," he said.

Peter Cape, who was the runner-up to winner Gordon O'Connell, said at the end of the day what made the event special was the people involved.

"It was a hard old slog, but I do remember the characters, remember the people," he said.

He hoped the stories of these people would also be remembered.

"History is worth preserving and this was significant, it was a one-off event," he said.

"There are a few fellas that have gone over the great divide. It's great that they can be remembered."

Dwight O'Connell said he wanted to keep the stories alive for future generations.

"This is our heritage and this one-off event really showcased the toughness of these people, and also gave us all someone to look up to and people to aspire to [be]," he said.

"It shows that anyone can achieve anything if you put your mind to it."