A koala wearing green and gold sunglasses is set to give social media a distinctly Aussie flair this Australia Day.

Twitter Australia has unveiled its new Australia Day emoji, ahead of celebrations on January 26.

The koala emoji will automatically generate when Twitter users include the tag #AustraliaDay on tweets.

Reacting to the announcement of the new emoji, one social media user Adam Spence described the image as a koala trying to hide a hangover.

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Showcase of Australia Day celebrations

Photos and messages posted on social media on January 26 which use the hashtag #AustraliaDay will be collected and displayed in a live digital exhibition at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra.

Museum director Mathew Trinca said tweets would become a permanent visual record of celebrations across the country.

"We encourage all Australians to share images of how they mark Australia Day 2016 to provide a permanent visual record of our cultural richness," Dr Trinca said.

"These images will be stored in a time capsule at the National Museum in perpetuity."

Since 2013, the digital collaboration has gathered more than 200,000 Australia Day social media posts to be preserved for the National Museum's collection.

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