The creator of the famed curried camel pie from the Birdsville Bakery has been remembered by loved ones as a 'hard working legend'.
Robert 'Dusty' Miller passed away last week.
His son Adrian Miller said visitors would often travel thousands of kilometres to the edge of the Simpson Desert to try his pies.
Mr Miller said people were sceptical of his dad's plans to build the bakery, which has now become an icon in the small south-west Queensland town.
"I was his biggest critic. I remember saying 'dad you're gonna go broke' but in dad's true form he just went ahead and did it," Mr Miller said.
"And the whole community out there have been fantastic, without them we wouldn't have got that thing off the ground.
"It will be an iconic monument for my father for a long, long time to come he's done a good thing out there and it's great for the community too."
Support from the whole community
Mr Miller said he had been overwhelmed by the support given by friends, family and people who crossed his father's path.
"He had friends, relatives, like Geoff Morton, Nell and David Brook and even famous artists like John Murray coming down to spend some time with him.
"As bad as the situation was, we made the best of a bad situation ... the phone has been running hot for the last four days and the level of support has been fantastic."
Mr Miller said he was a hard worker that never gave up faith in his ideals.
"He worked hard, he worked me hard too and he worked everyone around him hard," said Mr Miller.
"Without that drive he wouldn't have succeeded. He was a bit crazy. You have to be a little crazy to get that thing of the ground."
A legacy for the town
Mayor of Diamantina Shire Geoff Morton said 'Dusty' Miller was a big part of the community he would be missed.
"Dusty put all of his money and all of his effort into building a bakery in a town that no one thought a bakery would or should be," Councillor Morton said.
"There's not many people in the world who can say that they've actually built a place that has become iconic."
Cr Morton said the bakery had been a huge part of putting Birdsville on the map.
"He was always on the lookout for pies which were different and he tried a few but the curried camel pie really took off and won a couple of shows in southern Australia," he said.
"The Birdsville bakery gives travellers another thing to do in town which encourages them to stay another day.
"People don't just go in for an apple crumble and a coffee but to spend an hour or so looking around and relaxing and taking Birdsville in."
Cr Morton said the bakery had since changed hands and is now run by Martin Josselyn who purchased the bakery for $1.2 million in March last year.
It is typically open during the tourist season, which starts in April and runs until September, attracting between 40,000 and 60,000 visitors a year to the small town.
Friends will join family at a funeral service for Dusty on Wednesday, in Kapunda in South Australia before his ashes are brought back to Birdsville next year to lay to rest next to his best friend.