[3] A cemetery reserve was surveyed adjacent to Drain Road, near the old trotting track, in 1861, and the first occupant was buried there in September that year; however, the cemetery was soon relocated to the present site and the graves there reburied due to concerns about the original location.
In March 1862, mine manager Gavin Young ordered the removal of remains from the pioneer cemetery to the new Kadina Cemetery, as the old ceremony was likely to be encroached upon by the mines; it is not known how many graves were actually removed.
[4][5] A management committee was established in January 1866, but a fire in 1867 destroyed all the cemetery's early records.
[6][7] Paths were laid out and trees planted around this time, while the cemetery had already been encircled by a stone wall.
Control of the cemetery passed to the Corporate Town of Kadina in May 1932.