The Barassi Line. by Brett Tweedie

In the 1970s an Australian historian suggested the idea of the 'Barassi Line', a line on the map that divided Australia roughly in two, based on the sport they preferred. On one side of the line were those that preferred Australian football (Aussie rules), and to the other were those that preferred Rugby (both League and Union). At the time, there were no professional Aussie rules clubs on the league side, nor league clubs on the Aussie rules side. Not surprisingly, things have changed since then, and both football codes have made an effort to expand nationally. However, the line is still used as a way of discussing the divided loyalties of Australians when it comes to sport, and the line most commonly drawn to show this divide is completely straight, clearly an oversimplification, given the diverse landscapes and demographics of the country. This project dynamically generates the actual path of the Barassi Line using Voronoi cells and the latitude and longitude of all ~2,500 club locations in Australia, both to see how it compares to the path of the line as it's most commonly drawn, as well if it supports the idea of a clean dividing line between the two sporting codes in general.