A cute koala emoji to celebrate Australia Day
Twitter creates cute emoji to celebrate Australia Day Twitter

Twitter has unveiled a new emoji to help people share their Australia Day celebrations on the social networking site. Ahead of the national holiday on January 26, the social media platform introduced a cute koala emoji at an event in Canberra.

The emoji, a koala wearing green and gold sunglasses, will be attached to all tweets with the hashtag #AustraliaDay until Jan. 26, and is expected to showcase how Australians like to spend the public holiday through Twitter.

All the tweets with the said hashtag will be collected and displayed as a part of the #AustraliaDayYour Way project. The live digital exhibition will take place at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra. Twitter Australia also invited all users to use the #AustraliaDay hashtag to share their thoughts and emotions.

"We encourage all Australians to share images of how they mark Australia Day 2016 to provide a permanent visual record of our cultural richness," said museum director Dr. Mathew Trinca, as reported by the ABC. The tweets will be a documentation of celebrations across the country.

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

Since 2013, National Museum has collected and preserved more than 200,000 Australia Day social media posts. As soon as the emoji was announced, thousands of tweets started pouring in. One social media user described the cute koala as trying to hide a hangover.

Project #AustraliaDayYour Way is a result of a collaborative effort by National Museum of Australia, Twitter and the National Australia Day Council to encourage Australians across the country to share what they want to do on Australia Day.