Check out the Australian Museum on luxury family holidays down under

Vacationers booking luxury family holidays down under will find a great day's entertainment on offer at the Australian Museum.

Those visiting the country's first museum will be able to go on a special behind-the-scenes tour of the galleries, allowing them to get up close and personal with the exhibits.

Among the museum's 16 million objects and artefacts are animals of all varieties, ancient fossils and precious minerals.

There are also a number of cultural artefacts on show from indigenous peoples across Australia and the Pacific.

"Visit working areas normally reserved for staff and researchers, where rare specimens are carefully preserved, and scientists conduct the latest scientific research into life on planet earth," the museum states.

Highlights include the Goliath Tarantula, a South American spider that can grow as large as a dinner plate, 20,000-year-old Diprotodon fossils, the jaws from a Scalloped Hammerhead Shark and a Tasmanian Tiger, one of 140 specimens of extinct species in the museum's collection.