High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The 1956 Melbourne Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVI Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was held in Melbourne, Australia, in 1956, with the exception of the equestrian events, which could not be held in Australia due to quarantine regulations. Instead, those events were held five months earlier in Stockholm, Sweden, marking the second time that events of the same Olympics were held in different countries. (At the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium, one sailing event had been held in Dutch waters because of water quality). The 1956 Games were the first to be staged in the Southern Hemisphere, as well as the first to be held outside Europe and North America.