AUSSIES RULES TOO

Back in Melbourne, I have to report that the first signs of "soccer" being played in Australia was in the Woogaroo Lunatic Asylum in Walco, Brisbane, on August 7th 1875. The inmates and wards of the asylum took on the Brisbane Australian Rules Football Club, playing under "British Rules". There was no carrying or catching for example. bear in mind the FA was formulating the "laws" since 1863.

In Hobart, Tasmania on 10th May 1879, the local Cricket Club played a scratch game under English Association Rules.
On the 24th May they then played New Town FC under these rules.
On the 7th June the Cricket Club took on New Town FC again in a return fixture, played under Victorian Rules, to even out the advantage or disadvantage caused by the first encounter. The game was inspired by those rules played in the English Public Schools.

In Sydney, a team called the Wanderers played a game on August 3rd 1880 under the influence of John Walter Fletcher, an English emigre.

On the 14th the local school rugby team, King's School, played the Wanderers on Parramatta Common. The Wanderers are regarded as the first club to be formed in the country-not sure about the New Town FC lot?
In 1882 Fletcher founded the New South Wales English FA, later known as the South British Football Soccer Association, was the first established governing body in the country and the first outside the UK.

In 1883 the oldest existing team in the country, Balgownie Rangers were established and still play, in the Illawarra Regional league (Division One) New South Wales. This inspired other states to set up Associations:
1884-Victoria, Queensland,
1896-Western Australia, 1900-Tasmania, 1902-South Australia.
In 1911 a national organisation was formed, the Commonwealth Football Association, superseded in 1921 by the Australian Soccer Association.