Heatho, Torrens Title is what we go under now and the crown owns permanent water creeks. Old Title is pre 185# and is dead and buried (in NSW dept of Lands converted all remaining old title to Torrens)
If you go to this site -
http://nswtitles.minerals.nsw.gov.au/nswtitles/ and then once it loads go to the floating box ensure that "NSW Titles", "Administrative Boundaries" and "Crown Land" is ticked then the map will show you plain as day what is and what isn't crown land.
Being crown land doesn't automatically give you a right to be there though and it is often leased to a local Rural Lands Protection Board or similar (they oversee Travelling Stock Routes) or a local landholder. When the land is leased the leasee can say yay or nay to intended actions - except walking and fishing. You can contact a local Dept of Lands office with the Lot and DP of a particular crown land to see if access can be granted.
Creeks and Rivers are treated differently and they are also classified. The old rules of '1 chain from the centre of the bed" and whatnot are out the window. If the map shows it as crown land it is crown land, the mapping is prepared by government(approved) surveyors. Where riverbeds move over time landowners can apply to have the boundary altered to suit - but the alteration has to be done by registered surveyors and this is updated through the mapping.
Dept of Lands officers are very helpful on this topic.
