Queensland police prepare to pack up border checkpoints

“At 1am what we will see is all vehicles and people are able to come into Queensland without a border declaration pass,” he said.

“That’s provided you haven’t been into any existing hotspot from South Australia and those 20 local government areas in Adelaide.

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“People coming from that hotspot will need to fly in and they will need to complete a border declaration pass.”

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced last week that the border to Victorians and Sydney residents would open on Tuesday, without the need to quarantine.

Chief Superintendent Wheeler said the checkpoints were a “complex and mammoth” operation, with police inspecting declaration passes and vehicles before allowing or refusing people’s entry into the state.

“All of the infrastructure you see behind me and at the other checkpoints obviously need to be removed,” he said.

“So there will be some minor delays going into tomorrow morning, particularly on the M1 where there are hundreds of metres of concrete barricading that needs to come down so traffic diversion and traffic control will be in place to make sure it’s done safely.

“By the end of tomorrow and into Wednesday, hopefully, it will be like we were never here before.”

Chief Superintendent Wheeler said some police officers had been on border duty since the start of the pandemic measures.

“So all of those police officers are going to be unleashed back into the community to keep the community safe,” he said.

Chief Superintendent Wheeler said the border checkpoints had evolved over time.

“They started off very basic. We had a gazebo, a couple of plastic chairs and some witches hats,” he said.

“It was like going camping with supplies from the Bunnings store.

“Over time, we built villages at all these checkpoints.”

Chief Superintendent Wheeler said police had seen cases of stolen vehicles and vehicles containing drugs and other contraband at the border checkpoints.

“We’ve also seen some really interesting events,” he said.

“On Thursday, the 26th of March, we saw a NSW man who came to our border checkpoint with a stolen vehicle … drugs and other contraband and very interestingly, he fashioned a paper number plate written by hand,” he said.