Barassi Line

The "Barassi Line" is a term which was first used by Ian Turner in his "1978 Ron Barassi Memorial Lecture" to refer to an imagined line in Australia which divides areas where Australian rules football is the dominant winter code of football from those where rugby league and rugby union are the most popular. Overall attendance rates, media coverage and participation are heavily skewed in favour of each sport in its traditional areas and against the sport from the opposite side of the line.

Despite Australia's relatively homogeneous culture, the dichotomy existing in the country's sporting culture as represented by the line has endured since Australian rules football and rugby football developed distinct identities. Australian rules football is the most popular football code played to the west and south of the line, with centres in Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide, while rugby league and rugby union are more popular on the other side, with centres in Sydney and Brisbane. Each side represents roughly half of the Australian population, due to the concentration of population on the east coast.

At the time the term was first used, there were no professional teams or leagues located on each code's opposite side of the line. However, in the years since, the Australian Football League (AFL) in Australian rules football and the National Rugby League (NRL) in rugby league have expanded their domestic competitions to include teams from both sides of the line. In addition, the multinational body SANZAAR, which organises the Super Rugby competition in rugby union, has expanded its Australian presence on the opposite side of the line.

The line runs from the Northern Territory-Queensland border, south through Birdsville, Queensland, through southern New South Wales north of the Riverina, through Canberra and on to the Pacific Ocean at Cape Howe on the border of New South Wales and Victoria. The exact location of the division may be disputed and the stylised straight line is not particularly accurate in representing the division. No areas of Queensland favour Australian rules football over rugby league and, in the Riverina area in southern New South Wales, both codes vie for dominance. In the Canberra area, there is one professional team playing rugby union, the Brumbies, and one rugby league team, the Canberra Raiders, whereas there is no AFL side in Canberra, and only a few matches are played there each year, even though many Australian rules football teams compete in Canberra at levels lower than the AFL.

...
Wikipedia