However, police confirmed they are not seeing the number of caravanners and holidaymakers who amassed along the border to charge into Queensland when border lockdowns were last relaxed in July – just yet.

Gold Coast Police Chief Superintendent Mark Wheeler said while the border restrictions were reduced, police checks were not. It comes as police seized eight kilograms of cocaine at a border checkpoint on the Gold Coast on Friday.

“We’ve seen on multiple occasions people coming into Queensland, or attempting to come into Queensland carrying stolen goods in stolen vehicles, believe it or not, and also bring in contraband like drugs, so police have been really vigilant,” Wheeler said.

Officers at the M1 checkpoint at Tugun stopped a car around 3pm on Friday afternoon. Police allege they searched the car, uncovering the huge stash of cocaine along with a small amount of ecstasy and cannabis.

A 26-year-old man from Sippy Downs on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast has been charged with three count of possessing dangerous drugs and one count of possession of utensils.

A 31-year-old man from New Beith near Logan was also charged with one count of possession of dangerous drugs. Both men have been remanded in custody and will face Southport Magistrates Court.

From Tuesday, Queensland borders will be open except to declared hot spots of Victoria and Greater Sydney. It means that Queensland will be open to an extra 3 million people from NSW alone.

Wheeler said the last time Queensland relaxed its border restrictions in July, thousands of travellers had gathered in northern NSW ready to cross. But, he said, police were not seeing a similar explosion in numbers.

“But we have to anticipate that over the coming days and coming weeks that people will want to visit Queensland, particularly those people who’ve been unable to do so for such a long period of time,” Wheeler said.

As a result, police and health officials have again been preparing for extensive delays at the border crossing, calling on travellers to try and cross out of peak times.

“If you’ve got young children and you don’t like being asked, ‘are we there yet?’ it might be an idea to time your run either late at night or early morning, or give it a few days so that we can get some understanding of what this volume is going to look like,” Wheeler said.

“In reality it wouldn’t matter if you put lots more staff down there, you can only filter so quickly and you can only inspect so many vehicles at the same time because our inspection lanes are a limited size as well,” he said.

“So throwing a bunch more staff down there won’t necessarily make it a quicker experience.”