What to Do With an Unused Pool in the Southern Highlands

You have a pool you’re not using. Maybe it hasn’t been swum in for two years, maybe it came with the property and doesn’t fit your lifestyle, maybe it costs too much to maintain for the few weekends it gets used in the Southern Highlands’ short summer. Whatever brought you here, you’re wondering what your options are.

The options are: remove it, renovate it, convert it, or cover it. This guide gives you an honest breakdown of each — including costs, who each option suits, and the practical realities of each approach in the Highlands context.

Option 1: Full Pool Removal

What it involves: Complete demolition and removal of the pool, followed by backfill and compaction. Site returned to a blank canvas.

Cost in Southern Highlands: $8,000–$18,000 for most inground pools; $2,500–$4,000 for above-ground pools.

Best for:

• Owners who know they will never use the pool
• Properties where the pool space is wanted for another purpose
• Anyone planning to sell within 5 years
• Pools in poor structural condition
• Anyone who wants the cleanest possible outcome with no future complications

The Highlands specific case: The economics of removal in the Southern Highlands are compelling. With a usable season of perhaps 10–16 weekends and annual maintenance costs of $2,000–$4,000, the break-even on removal (based on maintenance savings) is typically 4–6 years. Most tree-changers who remove their pool wish they’d done it sooner.

What you get afterward: A clean, usable yard space with no maintenance obligations, no compliance requirements and no ongoing cost. The space can be lawn, garden, vegetable beds, or prepared for future building.

See our full pool removal service page for the detailed process.

Option 2: Partial Fill-In

What it involves: Pool drained, drainage holes punched through base, walls demolished to required depth, void filled and compacted. Pool is eliminated as a functional water feature but the lower shell remains in the ground.

Cost in Southern Highlands: $5,000–$10,000 for most inground pools.

Best for:

• Owners who want the pool gone but have a limited budget
• Properties where no future building on the site is planned
• Converting the area to garden or lawn without the expense of full removal

The trade-offs: Future building over the site requires engineering assessment. Property sale may require disclosure of the filled pool. Some risk of settlement or drainage issues if not done properly.

See our partial pool removal page for detail.

Option 3: Renovation

What it involves: Restoring the pool to working condition — new surface coating (pebblecrete or similar), new equipment, compliance upgrade, pool fence to current standards.

Cost in Southern Highlands: $17,000–$36,000+ for a full renovation of an older concrete pool.

Best for:

• Owners who will actively and enthusiastically swim (3+ times per week in summer)
• Pools in fundamentally sound structural condition
• Properties used for holiday rental where a pool justifies premium rates
• Families with children who will genuinely use the pool through the Highland summer

The Highlands reality check: The Southern Highlands pool season runs December–March at comfortable temperatures. For the annual cost of renovation amortised over 10–15 years, plus ongoing maintenance, the cost per swimming day is very high compared to the same investment in a warmer-climate property. Renovation makes sense for a smaller subset of Southern Highlands owners than it would in coastal NSW.

See our remove or renovate guide for a detailed financial comparison.

Option 4: Garden or Pond Conversion

What it involves: Rather than removing the pool structure, the pool is repurposed — most commonly as a garden pond, a raised garden bed, or an in-ground planter.

Cost: Variable — from almost nothing (if you simply drain it and plant around it) to $5,000–$15,000 for a formal pond or water garden conversion with plumbing and landscaping.

Pond conversion: Converting a pool to a garden pond involves draining the pool, removing the pool equipment, and (usually) installing a pump and filtration system appropriate for a natural pond aesthetic. The pool structure becomes the pond basin. This is a legitimate option for owners who want a water feature rather than a swimming pool.

Practical considerations for a Southern Highlands pond:

• The Highland climate supports a different plant palette than a coastal garden — cool-climate water plants, reeds and sedges, and hardy water lilies perform well
• Frog population establishment is a genuine benefit — the Highlands has several native frog species that will colonise a naturalistic pond
• The pool’s existing filtration and skimmer points need to be addressed — usually capped off or repurposed
• A pond still requires maintenance, but far less than a swimming pool

Raised garden bed conversion: If the pool is elevated slightly above garden level, it can be partially filled and converted to a raised planter — a popular option in permaculture and kitchen garden contexts. The pool walls provide the raised bed structure; the void is filled with compost and growing medium. This works best with above-ground pools or small fibreglass pools that have manageable volumes.

When conversion doesn’t work:

• Large inground concrete pools are generally too large and expensive to convert convincingly
• If the pool is in poor structural condition, it may not reliably hold water for a pond
• Pools embedded in established landscapes with formal surrounds often don’t suit informal conversion aesthetics

Option 5: Pool Cover Solutions

What it involves: Rather than removing or converting the pool, a pool cover is used to manage the maintenance problem — keeping the pool clean and safe while minimising chemical and heating costs.

Types of covers:

• Solar covers (bubble covers): Float on the water surface, reduce evaporation and heat loss, minimal cost ($200–$600). Don’t address the compliance or maintenance cost problem significantly
• Automatic pool covers: Motorised hard or soft covers that close over the pool — can serve as a barrier for compliance purposes in some configurations. Cost $3,000–$8,000 installed
• Permanent solid covers: Structural covers that sit over the pool and can sometimes be walked on — essentially closing off the pool entirely. Cost $5,000–$15,000+

When a cover is a reasonable short-term solution:

• You’re unsure whether you want to remove the pool and want time to decide without maintaining it fully
• You’re preparing to sell and want to manage the pool presentation simply until settlement
• You’re renting the property and the pool is an asset for the tenant

The limitations of covers: A pool cover doesn’t eliminate ongoing maintenance costs — it reduces them. The pool still contains water that needs basic chemical management to prevent health hazards. If the goal is eliminating the maintenance obligation entirely, only removal achieves this.

Which Option Is Right for You?

Frequently Asked Questions — Unused Pool Options

Can I just ignore an unused pool in the Southern Highlands? Not indefinitely. An unmaintained pool becomes a health hazard (mosquito breeding, algae, disease), a safety risk (unfenced or inadequately fenced water), and a potential compliance issue. At minimum, an unused pool should be properly secured and drained or chemically maintained.

If I drain the pool and leave it empty, is that OK? An empty pool creates structural risks — hydrostatic pressure on the base from groundwater can cause an empty pool to crack or even “float” (pop up from the ground) on high water table sites. Keeping a pool empty is generally not a safe long-term solution for an inground pool.

Is converting to a pond significantly cheaper than removal? It can be, but the ongoing maintenance and compliance questions don’t fully go away. A conversion to a naturalistic pond is a legitimate option for the right property and owner — but it’s not cost-free and requires ongoing management.

Will my homeowners insurance still cover the property if the pool is left unused? Check with your insurer. Most home and contents policies require pools to be fenced to current standards regardless of whether they’re in use. A non-compliant pool fence on an unused pool can affect insurance coverage.

Want to talk through your options for an unused Southern Highlands pool? Get in touch for a free no-pressure assessment.