The National Museum of Australia has launched "A History of the World in 100 Objects". The exhibition has travelled halfway across the world from its original home at the British Museum.

Capturing two million years of human history in just 100 objects sounds ambitious.

But that's exactly the challenge a new exhibition at the National Museum of Australia has taken on.

From stone tools and clay tablets... to WiFi and credit cards... these artefacts, which were originally displayed at the British Museum in London, aim to tell the story of mankind.

"It's really the story of us. A grand sweep of human history over two million years, but told with fabulous objects from the collections of one of the world's great museums, the British Museum," said Dr. Mathew Trinca, director of National Museum of Australia.

Curators have spent weeks painstakingly transporting, inspecting, protecting and carefully arranging some of the British Museum's most spectacular treasures.

The exhibition has been travelling the globe, visiting Perth earlier this year, and it will stay in Canberra until January 2016.

Exclusive to the Australian leg of the tour is a bronze head of Augustus, the first Emperor of Rome.

"Any of these objects in their own right is a treasure, but when I look at something like the bronze head of Augustus, which rarely leaves the British Museum, I really think how lucky we are to have it here in Australia," Trinca said.

This exhibition doesn't focus purely on the ancient or medieval world, it aims to cover all of human history, up to and including today.

Despite its title the exhibition actually features 101 objects -- the extra one marking the Australian invention of WiFi.