Seventy years ago this week, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Session in Mexico City was confronted by doubts as to whether another Olympic sport would actually take place at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne.

The full implications of Australia’s quarantine laws for equestrian events were laid bare for IOC members.

They were in fact the latest in a catalogue of problems for Melbourne organisers and many newspaper reports suggested that the entire Games might be moved to another city.

Melbourne had been awarded the Games in 1949, a significant decision by the IOC, because it was the first time that the Olympics were to be held in the southern hemisphere.

Organisers planned to hold equestrian events at the Melbourne Showgrounds in Flemington.

The eventing competition was to be held across open country.

Yet early in 1953, an announcement clarifying quarantine laws was made by the Australian authorities.

"To permit horses to enter Australia for the Olympic Games would involve our livestock industries in a serious risk which would be quite unwarranted," Australian Federal Health officer Earl Page said.

Only horses from New Zealand and Britain were permitted to enter Australia without such a measure.

Those from all other countries were subject to six months quarantine in Britain before their shipment to Australia.

"Horses are our one big problem, they are the achilles heel in Melbourne’s Games set up," admitted Organising Committee chairman Arthur Coles.

"Australia’s policy of a six-month quarantine on all horses entering the country puts an almost insurmountable obstacle in our way," an unnamed American official told the United Press International agency.

There were also difficulties in other areas.

A number of venues had not yet been approved nor had the all clear for the Athletes Village been given by the Government.

From his home in Santa Barbara, California, IOC President Avery Brundage fumed that the IOC had not previously been given notice of the difficulties concerning quarantine. 

He also highlighted other obstacles which had come to light.

"The official reports we have been receiving are optimistic, but the unofficial ones most discouraging," Brundage revealed.

"We must have some firm assurances from them that they are meeting the Olympic requirements."

Brundage added that 17 other cities had indicated their willingness to take on the Games.

"What we need now is firm evidence that work is about to start on the Olympic swimming pool and Village and that their quarantine restriction on horses will be lifted for the Games," Brundage continued.

This may simply have been a psychological ploy to encourage the Australians to greater efforts.

Much later, he used the same tactics and related proudly that "my observations caused a grenade of sensation in the world’s press and had the effect of an atom bomb."

By the time the IOC gathered at the Hotel El Prado in Mexico City, the situation had not changed and reports spoke of "friction" at the meetings.

The IOC Executive Commission met a few days before the main IOC Session, where Coles informed them that the quarantine problem "occupied the attention of the Organising Committee and even of the Government."

The meetings in Mexico were the first time that Brundage had led the full IOC Session since his election as President the previous year.

He began with an admission that the "situation has become very involved."

He spoke of rumours and growing opposition to the Games in Australia.

Members were told: "The Executive Commission has bidden the Melbourne delegates to be at our disposal for this question to come up for discussion."

The morning of April 18 was when the 1956 Games were to be discussed by the full IOC membership.

Australian Hugh Weir told his IOC colleagues that the Australian Gallup Institute had conducted a poll, concluding that 80 per cent of Melbourne residents were still in favour of the Games.

"Only one worry preoccupies us,it is the quarantine of six months imposed by an Australian law on all the foreign horses coming to Australia," Weir conceded.

"Certain proposals have been submitted to the health authorities, with a view to special quarantine arrangements, under which it will be possible to bring horses into Australia, for the equestrian events.

"These proposals are at present being examined, and we are hopeful that suitable arrangements will be evolved."

Erik Von Frenckell, President of the 1952 Helsinki Organising Committee was withering in criticism.

"During a period of four years, the Australian organisers have done nothing to gain our confidence," Von Frenckell declared.

Brundage himself suggested that it would be "incompatible with our rules, were we to organise equestrian events elsewhere than at Melbourne." 

The Melbourne group did receive support from Baron Santiago de Guell of Spain.

As one of the organisers of the 1955 Mediterranean Games, the Baron was perhaps more sympathetic to others in a similar position.

"The Australians have given us satisfaction in all respects except on equestrian sport," De Guell said.

"It would be unjust to take back the Games from them on this account, for we would create a very unpleasant impression in Australia."

London 1948 Olympics Organising Committee chairman Lord Burghley used his influence as a member of the Executive Commission to argue in favour of a change of regulations.

"Our rules specify nowhere that the attribution of the Games must be withheld from a city if the equestrian events cannot be organised," Burghley insisted.

"We can alter the rules to suit our convenience if we think that it is to the interest of the Olympic Games."

The discussion continued for over two hours before a decision was reached.

The IOC members voted unanimously that the Games should remain in Melbourne and that efforts should continue to solve the difficulties over quarantine.

"We have full confidence in our Australian friends," Olympic Chancellor Otto Mayer announced to the world's media.

"We were able to answer them on all points except the quarantine regulations," Melbourne City Council representative Bill Barry announced after the meeting.

The Australian press was more critical.

"We came within a whisker not only of losing the Games for the next half century or more, but also of making ourselves the laughing stock of the world," Sydney’s Daily Telegraph said in an editorial.

The saga of the equestrian events continued into the following year.

The health authorities in Australia refused to relent and eventually Stockholm, 15,589 kilometres away from Melbourne, was selected to host dressage eventing and jumping.

The equestrian competitions were held in June 1956 in the same Stockholm Stadium which had hosted the 1912 Olympics.

The Melbourne Olympics opened in November and even without the equestrian events, they were considered a great success.