He later joined the colonial public service, eventually serving as secretary to a succession of Ministers for Education.
Influenced by George Blakiston Wilkinson's book South Australia: its advantages and resources[1] and J. C. Byrne's Twelve Years Wandering in the British Colonies,[2] he emigrated to South Australia aboard the Asia, arriving at Port Adelaide in September 1851.
He had only been in the colony a month when he was appointed headmaster of the (Anglican) Christ Church school in North Adelaide.
Shortly after, the great Victorian gold rush began, leaving South Australia with a shortage of adult male workers and a collapse of the local economy, and Bath was left to cope with 100 students with little assistance.
After ten years Bath founded his own school, the "North Adelaide Classical and Mercantile Academy", in nearby Ward Street.