For more than 70 years from 1860, Muslim cameleers were a vital trading link between urban and outback Australia.
But no matter where they were, at prayer time they would stop the camels, put down their prayer mats, face Mecca and prostrate themselves.
Russell Khan, 72, of Ringwood, is Catholic and has few objects from his grandfather, Indian-born Broken Hill cameleer Zaidulla Faizulla.
But he does have Mr Faizulla's prayer mat and he is proud to be descended from the hard-working, often-ostracised cameleers.
The role and legacy of the cameleers is the subject of an exhibition opening at the Immigration Museum on Friday, the first devoted entirely to Australia's first Muslim community.
The first cameleers arrived with a few dozen camels at Port Melbourne in June 1860 for the Burke and Wills expedition. Crowds gawked as they strolled up Swanston and Bourke streets to stables at Parliament House.
Over the next 70 years, 2000 cameleers and 20,000 camels came to Australia from Afghanistan and northern India. The Adelaide-to-Darwin Ghan train is named after them.
Long before four-wheel-drives or sealed roads, camels and cameleers took supplies to remote communities and brought produce to markets.
Photos, artefacts, clothing, paintings and archive interviews in the exhibition paint a picture of their lives.
The items include hobbles, saddles and bridles from 19th-century outback explorations; leather shoes for camels in the Burke and Wills expedition; and rare, intricate sketches of the first camels and cameleers arriving at Port Melbourne and later at the Burke and Wills camp at Royal Park.
Exhibition curator Philip Jones says a compass presented to cameleer Bejah Dervish by Lawrence Wells, leader of the 1896 Calvert Expedition through north-western Australia is his favourite item because, along with the cameleer's turban, it survived ''against all odds'' to be passed down to his grandson William Bejah, ''and now it will be known and treasured as part of Australia's heritage''.
Russell Khan was raised by his grandfather (baba) at Camel Camp, a poor settlement on the northern fringe of Broken Hill of which only the red corrugated iron mosque survives. Mr Faizulla worshipped there daily and became imam, organising funerals and festivals. His wife (Mr Khan's grandmother) was Crasha Maude Nohab, an Irishwoman who bore 14 children.
Mr Faizulla kept about 20 camels, which took goods as far as Queensland.
He died in 1961 and Mr Khan, who was 21 when he came to Melbourne to work as a building painter, wishes he had asked him more about his life.
''I'm very proud because I know they did it hard,'' Mr Khan said of his link to the cameleers.
''It was very slow, hot and heavy work. But they were good, very dignified people.''
He says the exhibition is an insight into a little-known heritage.
''Like the Chinese on the goldfields and the Italians on the Snowy River, these people helped build this country and they should be recognised because they're just as important as any of us.''
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