The first effort towards national administration of the game took place in 1883, with an informal intercolonial football conference which took place on 9 November in Melbourne. With a growing desire to have a uniform set of rules across the country to facilitate intercolonial play and development of the sport, invitations were sent to all of the major football clubs or leagues. The meeting was attended by delegates representing Victoria, South Australia, Queensland and Tasmania; delegates from New South Wales also travelled to Melbourne but due to communication errors missed the conference; New Zealand was also invited to send a delegate. After debating rule differences which existed at that time between the colonies (including Tasmania's desire to have a crossbar on the goal posts, or South Australia's desire to have behinds count towards the final score of matches), a uniform set of rules was agreed to; the decisions were not binding, but were adhered to due to the collective desire of the delegates. Over the following decade, delegates from the different colonies or regions (Northern and Southern Tasmania, for example, were separately represented) met most Novembers to make adjustments to the playing and administrative rules of the game, coming to agreements based on a vote of attending delegates. Western Australia, where Australian rules football was not prominent until the mid-to-late 1880s, was not involved at this early stage.