G'day All
more fat to chew on, the following is an extract from
CROWN LANDS ACT 1989 - SECT 172
Land with boundaries to lakes, roads etc
172 Land with boundaries to lakes, roads etc
(1) In this section:
"alienated" (except in subsection (7)) means sold, leased or otherwise disposed of under the Crown Lands Acts or any other Act relating to the alienation of land of the Crown.
"bank" means the limit of the bed of a lake or river.
"bed" means the whole of the soil of a lake or river including that portion:
(a) which is alternately covered and left bare with an increase or diminution in the supply of water, and
(b) which is adequate to contain the lake or river at its average or mean stage without reference to extraordinary freshets in time of flood or to extreme droughts.
"lake" includes a permanent or temporary lagoon or similar collection of water not contained in an artificial work.
"river" includes any stream of water, whether perennial or intermittent, flowing in a natural channel, and any affluent, confluent, branch or other stream into or from which the river flows.
(2) The boundary of any land which is alienated by the Crown and which is described or alienated:
(a) as bounded by, by reference to, or by the margin or bank, of a non-tidal lake, or
(b) by metes expressed or shown to run to a lake or to the margin or bank of a lake,
shall be taken to be the bank of the lake at the time of the Crown survey for the purposes of the alienation.
(3) Title to land comprising the bed of a non-tidal lake does not pass, and never has passed, by any alienation of land adjoining the lake:
(a) as bounded by, by reference to, or by the margin or bank of, the lake, or
(b) by metes expressed or shown to run to the lake or to the margin or bank of the lake,
and no person is, by being the owner of land so alienated, entitled to any rights of access over, or to the use of, any part of the bed.
(4) The doctrine of accretion does not apply, and never has applied, to a non-tidal lake.
(5) A person is not, by being the owner of land sold, leased or otherwise disposed of under this Act or the Crown Lands (Continued Tenures) Act 1989 :
(a) as bounded by, by reference to, or by the margin or bank of, a river, or
(b) by metes expressed or shown to run to a river or to the margin or bank of a river,
entitled to any rights of access over, or to the use of, any part of the bed of the river.
(6) Subsection (5) does not apply to the owner of land sold under the Crown Lands (Continued Tenures) Act 1989 if the land:
(a) was, at the time of the sale, held as a conditional lease, homestead selection, homestead farm, week-end lease, conditional purchase lease, settlement purchase lease, closer settlement lease or group purchase lease under the Crown Lands Acts, and
(b) was held as that holding before the bed of the adjoining river was reserved from sale or lease under the Crown Lands Acts.
(7) If, before the commencement of this section:
(a) the bed of a river was reserved from sale or lease under the Crown Lands Acts, and
(b) land adjoining the river was subsequently alienated (including alienation under any form of tenure under the Crown Lands Acts or any other Act relating to the alienation of land of the Crown):
(i) as bounded by, by reference to, or by the margin or bank of the river, or
(ii) by metes expressed or shown to run to the river or to the margin or bank of the river,
a person is not, by being the owner of the land, entitled to any rights of access over, or to the use of, any part of the bed of the river.
(8) If any land is or was alienated by the Crown with a boundary adjoining, or as bounded by, a road created by the Crown, no part of the road passes, or shall be taken ever to have passed, with the land.
(9) Nothing in this section affects any rights acquired under the Water Management Act 2000 .
