ELLEN FANNING, PRESENTER: It is not unusual for Australians to hit the road during retirement, but not every grey nomad returns with treasure.

A legend of Australia's racing industry, Larry Perkins, has done just that causing a stir among historians by solving a century-old mystery.

He told his remarkable story to Claire Moodie.

CLAIRE MOODIE, REPORTER: Larry Perkins has got a date with history.

LARRY PERKINS, FORMER RACING DRIVER: Now, what have I forgotten? It will be something, next time.

CLAIRE MOODIE: He is leaving his busy life in Melbourne for an outback adventure.

He is off to follow the tracks of an early explorer.

LARRY PERKINS: The view and to travel outback, I find it great to have a purpose with it, to follow these explorer tracks and follow their journal, and try to find the waterholes they found, and the tree they might have blazed and so on. It is just a great feeling.

BATHURST RACE CALLER (1995): Larry Perkins wins!

LARRY PERKINS (1995): This is the best, tremendous to have this crowd behind you. This mountain is a hell of a challenge.

CLAIRE MOODIE: He is used to being behind the wheel, apart from being a legend of Australia's racing industry, he also built a solar car which he drove across the country.

He raced in Formula 1 in the '70s, before returning to Australia and winning the Bathurst 1000 six times.

His 1995 victory, when he came from the back of the field to win, was one of the highlights.

BATHURST RACE CALLER (1995): Larry Perkins and Russell Ingall, the great race winners!

CLAIRE MOODIE: Since retiring from the racing scene there has been a change of pace, but Larry Perkins is still pulling off unlikely feats.

As part of his fascination with Australia's explorers, he has been studying a 1904 scientific expedition by a former Royal Navy captain, Henry Vere Barclay.

LARRY PERKINS: Well, he's not famous because he didn't die and he didn't find much, because where he was going, there wasn't much to find.

CLAIRE MOODIE: Barclay came here to the extreme isolation of the Simpson Desert in Central Australia.

He and second-in-command, Ronald Macpherson and their team, were forced to abandon their equipment to survive.

All the items and their location were recorded in this journal, but inexplicably no-one has been able to find them.

LARRY PERKINS: He made a list at the back of the diary and he put the latitude and longitude there, and many people have thought, "Well, this will be easy to find, go to the latitude and longitude," but I did a lot more homework and found that there is no point in going to the latitude and longitude because the goods can't possibly be there based on the rest, of reading all the pages of the journal.

So I called my brother up and said, "Do you want to come out and waste a bit of time with me?" and he was pretty keen on that.

It has been a long haul up from Melbourne, but I'm thinking it is going to be worth it.

CLAIRE MOODIE: Larry Perkins had his own theory about where Barclay's lost equipment was located and after days of searching the sand hills, there was a breakthrough.

LARRY PERKINS: Peter, my brother said, "What's that over there?"

And it was only 30, 40 metres away, an unfamiliar shape, so we steered and I jumped off the bike and immediately could see that it was camel tanks, water tanks that could only have been Barclay's gear and I turned around to Peter and I said, "This, we found it."

It was a fantastic feeling that I will never forget and I'm sure my brother, Peter, won't forget.

The Barclay shovel. How's that? Incredible. So fragile, it might not survive the trip out.

He said he left all these personal effects.

CLAIRE MOODIE: At the Royal Geographical Society in Adelaide where Barclay and Macpherson's journal is held, there is excitement about the discovery.

ROD SHEARING, ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY OF AUSTRALIA: I was a bit surprised, actually I thought," What's a Bathurst driver doing poking around Australia's history?"

He saw this as a personal challenge.

CLAIRE MOODIE: Larry Perkins found the equipment about 100 kilometres from the location listed in the journal.

LARRY PERKINS: This is a cast iron pestle and mortar, and quite heavy, as far as I can tell. No wonder they wanted to lighten the load.

ROD SHEARING: It could have been found by somebody else and, of course, the chances are that somebody finds it and keeps it to themselves and just takes it away and spirits it away and nobody knows anything about it.

What this has done is it has brought it into the public domain, if you like.

CLAIRE MOODIE: Since the initial discovery, Larry Perkins has been back out in the Simpson Desert working with archaeologists from the Northern Territory Heritage Branch to preserve Barclay's equipment and belongings.

The relics will be examined and identified before being put out on public display.

What captivates you about the explorers?

LARRY PERKINS: Well, they were also a determined people, and they were heading off on journeys with no sure outcome, and in many cases it cost them their life, a lot of these guys and I find it very interesting now to understand what they were going through and what they had to do.

CLAIRE MOODIE: In the meantime, there is still more equipment at the site to uncover, including, it's hoped, some more photographic glass plates that could provide further insights

LARRY PERKINS: One of the things that we really hoped we could find here, so this is a fantastic find.

CLAIRE MOODIE: How does the excitement compare to winning the Bathurst?

LARRY PERKINS: I may have won Bathurst, but lots of other guys have won Bathurst, too.

So we found this gear, and not too many guys find gear like this.

The four and a half days on the quad bike paid off based on enthusiasm and homework and a can-do attitude, that's what I'm proud of.

ELLEN FANNING: Can you believe he found it?

Larry Perkins, speaking there to Claire Moodie. Great story.

All vision from the Simpson Desert - "Copyright 2018 Perkins Engineering, Extremefilm.com.au and Beer Bottle Productions"