The exact story and identity of the person buried at Dead Man’s Hill at Coolawatinnie is now lost. In being asked about the story, former Peterborough engineman George Miller told the following.

‘There’s been several versions of that. My dad used to be on what they call the bullock teams carrying between either Burra, Terowie, that’s where the teams used to work through to Broken Hill before the railway went through. They used to take rations through to Broken Hill. On the way back they used to pick up wool at Olary and Bimbowrie (pastoral station) and take it to Port Augusta. That would be getting back before the railways went through.

‘That cross at Coolawatinnie, my dad put it this way. At Paratoo there used to be an eating house, the remains are still there. There’s a good well there and all along there, about every 20 miles, there were eating houses. Get whatever you wanted there, beer, booze. There’s one at Mannahill and that’s how Mannahill got its name. Manna means tucker; there used to be an eating house there. This one at Paratoo, this team was going through and there were generally two on a wagon, one driving the bullocks. The beasts would lead one another. If you wasn’t driving you would be riding the pole. Bullock teams, there might be 16 or 20 bullocks in a team, there was a big, long pole attached to the wagon and if you’re not driving you were sitting on this pole. This bloke got pretty well stonkered at the eating house at Paratoo and still had a bottle or two. When they got over the top of Dead Man’s Hill the driver looked for his mate. He wasn’t there. He walked back along the track and the driver found him. He fell off the pole. That’s how my dad give it to me.’