Police have been pleasantly surprised with the volume of traffic coming into Queensland at the Gold Coast border checkpoint.

There had been predictions of heavy delays when the borders finally re-opened, with Queenslanders stuck interstate allowed to travel by road and visitors finally allowed in to the Sunshine State.

Acting police chief superintendent Rhys Wildman said they were pleasantly surprised.

Since 1am yesterday, 18,300 crossed over the state border into the Gold Coast.

“We actually had a higher number of turnarounds, so we actually had to have a look at why that was,” he told Scott Emerson.

“And what we found yesterday we had 144 turn arounds.”

He said the majority were people “trying to jump the gun” and get across the border before the new directive had taken place.

There was only 13 turned around yesterday.

Every car is checked when the traffic is light.

“When the traffic gets in peak times, when the traffic gets quite congested, then we look at a more risk-based approach.”

He said they focus on people coming from the hotspot areas.

Press PLAY to hear more about how police are managing the border operations