Council involvement

Local councils are the tier of government most involved in day-to-day management and maintenance of ocean baths.

The 1858 Municipalities Act established the first general system of local government in New South Wales. The NSW government could declare an area a municipality after receiving a petition signed by at least 50 householders in the area. The early seaside municipalities included Randwick in Sydney  and Wollongong, Shellharbour and Kiama in the Illawarra.

The Municipalities Act of 1867 remedied some defects in the earlier legislation. Seaside municipalities with an interest in creating baths still lacked any legal title to rivers and the seas, but they could make bylaws covering parks, gardens, baths, suppression of nuisances and the promotion of public health.

In 1876, Randwick Municipal Council passed bylaws to control surfing on its beaches and behaviour around the established women's baths. Later council bylaws controlled the hours and costumes for bathing, surfing and sunbathing. By 1884, bylaws defined for Newcastle Council's indoor Corporation Baths also applied at the outdoor Bogey Hole. Both of those baths catered mainly to male bathers and swimmers, with women only admitted only at set times.

The Municipal Baths Act, consolidated with the Municipalities Act of 1897, finally empowered councils to extend their control beyond the high water mark on harbour, sea and river foreshores.

The NSW Shires Act and the Local Government Extension Act, consolidated as the Local Government Act of 1906, provided a basis for establishing shire councils to complement the earlier municipal councils. The Local Government Act of 1919  empowered councils to construct and manage baths either on specially acquired land or on municipal reserves. As a result, more public baths appeared in the most populated city and country areas.

Councils sometimes favoured excavation of ocean baths, because they could use stone excavated from the ocean baths to improve local roads.

Prior to the 1930s Depression, the NSW government gave local councils relatively little assistance for unemployed relief work. An increase in grants to councils in 1931 for expenditure on relief focused effort on useful works such as providing roads, bridges and baths. By June 1934, around 70% of councils were participating in the Emergency Relief scheme set up by the NSW government.

The Local Government (Further Amendment) Act 1935 inaugurated the Spooner scheme designed to assist in the relief if unemployment by providing full-time jobs at award rates and enable resource-constrained councils to undertake public works. This scheme commenced in December 1935 and by 1938 had 273 participating councils. The NSW government decided to end the Emergency Relief works scheme and transfer administration to the Department of Local Government. By the end of 1936, few councils remained in the Emergency Relief works  scheme.

By 1938, many but not all council rates were returning to their pre-Depression levels. By 1939, 68 municipalities and thirteen shires in NSW controlled one or more public baths. Most public baths ran at a loss.

Amalgamation of Councils created Greater Newcastle in 1937 and Greater Wollongong in 1947.

Coastal councils now monitor water quality at ocean baths and ocean beaches and report on it in their State of the Environment reports. Their Local Environmental Plans list heritage items such as ocean baths. Councils also consider the aesthetics of views from public places like ocean baths when assessing development applications.

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