MENTION ''the Brisbane Line'' to someone old enough and they will think of the line on a map allegedly drawn during World War II to separate the Australian south-east from the rest of the nation, which would be ceded to Japan in the event of an invasion.
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The line was a myth, eventually found by a royal commission to have never been part of Australian defence planning.
But Deloitte Access Economics says a new Brisbane Line has emerged, one that travels from the south-east corner of Queensland to Adelaide, confining the 80 per cent of Australian workers who live south-east of it to a relatively small triangle of land.
The difference is that this time it is the 20 per cent of our workers who live north and west of the line who will prosper.
Access says 53 per cent of the major investment projects either under way or approved are north and west of the line.
Writing in this morning's Access Investment Monitor, the economist David Rumbens says ''rarely have Australia's economic prospects been as geographically skewed''. ''Even within Queensland the line provides a handy dividing line,'' he says. ''Brisbane and the Gold Coast struggle with weak construction and a weak housing market, while to the north the struggle is about how to find and house workers.''
North Queensland is hosting three massive liquefied natural gas developments, all based near Gladstone.
''You can use the line to predict economic growth,'' Mr Rumbens said. ''Investment leads to economic growth. Growth will be fast on one side of the line, slower on the other.''
