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The 1956 Olympic Games hosted by Melbourne were the first Olympics held in both Australia and the Southern Hemisphere.

Opening on November 22 they were the first and only Olympic games to be held in two seperate nations, defying the spirit of Olympic unity as due to severe restrictions on allowing horses into Australia, the equestrian portion was held in Stockholm, Sweden.

Having the unfortunate distinction of being the first Olympic games to be marred by political protests; Spain, Switzerland, Netherlands, Eygpt, Lebanon, Iraq and powerhouse China all did not participate.

Due to the two political events and the distance to Australia, only 3,500 athletes under 100 countries participated in the Games. The former U.S.S.R placed 1st on the medal table, followed by the USA with Australia finishing a strong 3rd.

From the official Olympic.org site:

"Melbourne won the right to host the 1956 Olympics by one vote over Buenos Aires. Australian quarantine laws were too severe to allow the entry of foreign horses, so the equestrian events were held separately in Stockholm in June. The Melbourne Games were the first to be held in the southern hemisphere. Laszlo Papp of Hungary became the first boxer to win three gold medals. American Pat McCormick won both diving events, just as she had in 1952. Two athletes dominated the gymnastics competition. On the men’s side, Ukrainian Viktor Chukarin earned five medals, including three gold, to bring his career total to eleven medals, seven of them gold. Agnes Keleti of Hungary brought her career total to ten medals by winning four gold medals and two silver. The U.S. basketball team, led by Bill Russell and K.C. Jones, put on the most dominant performance in Olympic history, scoring more than twice as much as their opponents and winning each of their games by at least 30 points. U.S. weightlifter Paul Anderson weighed 137.9kg. In weightlifting, ties are broken by awarding the higher place to the athlete with the lower body weight. Incredibly, this worked to Anderson’s advantage when he tied for first with Humberto Selvetti of Argentina. Selvetti weighed 143.5kg. Prior to 1956, the athletes in the Closing Ceremony marched by nation, as they did in the Opening Ceremony. In Melbourne, following a suggestion by a young Australian named John Ian Wing, the athletes entered the stadium together during the Closing Ceremony, as a symbol of global unity"

[Most of this footage is not exactly too clear, as obviously it is over 50 years old]

Japanese gymnast Takashi Ono performs on high bar at the 1956 Olympics