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 is the dominant winter code of football from those where the rugby codes, rugby league and rugby union are more popular. 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. Despite Australia's relatively homogeneous culture, the dichotomy existing in the country's sporting culture as represented by the line has endured since the founding of Australian Rules in the 1850s. Australian rules football is the most popular football code played to the west and south of the line, with centres in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth, while rugby league and rugby union are more popular on the other side, with centres in Sydney, Canberra and Brisbane. Coincidentally, 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 in Australian rules, the National Rugby League in rugby league and the Australian Rugby Union have expanded their domestic competitions to include teams from both sides of the line, although overall attendance rates and overall participation are still skewed towards each sport's traditional areas.

The exact location of the division may be disputed and the stylised straight line is not particularly accurate in representing the division. It is yet to be shown that any of Queensland favours Australian football over Rugby League and in the Riverina area of New South Wales both codes vie for dominance. In the Canberra area there is one professional team playing rugby union team, the ACT 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 teams compete in Canberra at levels lower than the AFL.

Other major team sports in Australia, such as cricket, basketball, netball, field hockey and soccer have less variation in their popularity by location.