Construction issues

The difficulties of constructing ocean baths can be considerable, but should not be over-estimated. Newcastle's Bogey Hole was hewn out of solid rock in the 1820s. Pool construction posed few problems in nineteenth century communities skilled in harbour construction, mining or quarrying (Newcastle, Wollongong, Kiama).

Equipment used on baths construction ranged from shovels and horse-scoops to steam engines. When construction of the Newcastle Ocean Baths began in 1912, steam winches and hydraulic jackhammers were used while high sandbag barricades held back the tide. Draught horses hauled away pieces of rock. Parts of the jackhammer drill are embedded in the rock near the original pumphouse.

Pool construction involves working around the tide.  In a pre-wetsuit era, pool construction was normally only undertaken in the warmer months. The labour force engaged in pool construction could be the forced labour of convicts that created some of the earliest ocean baths or paid or voluntary labour of free workers.

Organisation involved in paid work at ocean baths include:
- Public Works Department (Bronte, Bondi),
- Private enterprise (Wylies Baths, Pearl Beach Baths), and
- Council workers or contractors working for councils (Collaroy, Freshwater Beach, Newport Beach, Boatharbour ladies and men's baths at Gerringong, The Entrance ocean baths, North Bondi, Ross Jones pool at Coogee).

In some cases, the excavated material helped justify the development of the ocean pool or at least to defray its costs. Fill from the Coledale pool and Wollongong's Continental Baths was used on the nearby roads. Fill from the Depression-era Shellharbour baths was also used on roads, as was fill from the baths at Gerringong's Boat Harbour and Werri Beach. Fill from the Queenscliff pool was used in a sea wall constructed by Manly Council.

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