Warning of the risk of nuclear war, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the prize to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, or ICAN.
Campaigners say they hope the prize encourages the Australian government, and nuclear-armed states, to adopt the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
The Asia-Pacific director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, Tim Wright, was shocked to hear that his organisation had won this year's Nobel Peace Prize.
The group had been on the shortlist, but not thought of as a frontrunner for the prize, which has in the past gone to individuals critics say have brought the award into disrepute.
Tim Wright says he was just as shocked as everybody else to hear the announcement.
