Around 130 people will be involved in the trials, supervised by research organisation the Nucleus Network.
The participants in the trial, aged between 18 and 59, do not have coronavirus.
They will first be injected with a virus substitute, followed by the vaccine.
Six people will begin Phase 1 of the trial in Melbourne today, with others to begin the trial in Brisbane this week.
Results are expected in July 2020.
The vaccine, developed by US biotech company Novavax, is one of over 100 currently being developed across the world.
The trials are the first in the southern hemisphere.
Infectious diseases expert Paul Griffin, who is one of the experts leading the trials, told Today researchers are working hard to find a safe vaccine.
“Because of the global pandemic we are moving faster than ever before,” he said.
“So essentially we’re already preparing for the next phase, the phase two studies and the company manufacturing the vaccine have already started that scaling up process.”
Griffin said a vaccine could be ready by the end of this year.
“I think there is a lot of variables still to be determined,” he said.
“But we’re working harder than ever to progress as quickly as possible and it’s possible there will be a significant number of doses available perhaps even by the end of the year.”
