TENS of thousands of inner-city Brisbane residents have woken this morning to the stark reality of life inside the G20 Red Zone – where flying kites and carrying eggs could attract increased scrutiny from thousands of extra police.

The declared zone – stretching from South Bank to Kelvin Grove, Bowen Hills, Fortitude Valley and Woolloongabba – has been established in a bid to stop the violence that crippled other G20 host cities, like Toronto in 2010, where police were overwhelmed by the “mass disorder’’ which included rioters torching cars, trashing businesses and attacking officers.

As residents digested this news, fences and barricades began going up around South Brisbane, as streets became no-go zones.

EARLY PROTESTS: Police on alert

INNER CITY: Full list of road closures

media_camera Barricades go up at South Bank a week out from the G20 sumnmit. Picture: Tara Croser.

Protests are expected to start as early as today and continue up to and including the summit next Saturday.

The 6000-strong police force will be armed with additional powers from today as 1500 interstate and international recruits are briefed and formally sworn in as part of a special G20 police force.

People face fines up to $5500 for possessing any of the 70 prohibited items inside the red zone which include weapons, handcuffs, explosives and some placards.

media_camera No way through for traffic off Grey Street. Pic: Tara Croser.

FULL LIST: What’s prohibited in the Red Zone (18MB PDF)

The list also includes less obvious “threats” such as reptiles and surfboards, as well as household items including eggs, cans and glass jars.

Those trying to get to work inside the heavily guarded restricted zone at South Bank and around major hotels will face military-style checkpoints.

And by the end of the week, commuters will not be able to get a bus into the CBD.

media_camera The G20 ‘Red Zone’ encompasses a large tract of inner Brisbane.

G20 police strategic commander Deputy Commissioner Ross Barnett said law- abiding citizens had nothing to fear.

He said the declared zone was set up a week earlier than originally planned because of police intelligence that protests were going to be staged ahead of the November 15 summit.

“We are in a very significantly increased security threat environment, nationally and internationally, not just around the event,’’ Mr Barnett said.

“The police working around the event ... we don’t expect them to be constantly using the powers in the legislation, but if they need to, if they have concerns about people and vehicles, then of course we will be encouraging them to do their duty and check those people out.’’

Ready for Brisbane G20: Stuff just got real media_camera G20 counterterrorism training at the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services training centre at the Port of Brisbane. Pic: Marc Robertson 1 of 21 media_camera G20 counterterrorism training at the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services training centre at the Port of Brisbane. Pic: Marc Robertson 2 of 21 media_camera G20 counterterrorism training at the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services training centre at the Port of Brisbane. Pic: Marc Robertson 3 of 21 media_camera G20 counterterrorism training at the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services training centre at the Port of Brisbane. Pic: Marc Robertson 4 of 21 nav_small_close Want to see more?( 17 more photos in collection )Continue to full gallery nav_small_left nav_small_right

Mr Barnett said items such as glass jars and tin cans were banned because they could be used as weapons against police. He said the police presence in the declared area involved “several thousand officers’’ whose numbers would ramp up during the week.

“Someone going home from doing the shopping with a dozen eggs to make an omelette will have nothing to fear, but if someone was to come in near the restricted areas to participate in protest activity, and they were to have a dozen eggs in their bag or their backpack, well, we would obviously treat that in a completely different manner.

media_camera Workers get the barricades ready. Pic: Tara Croser.

“Police will be dealing with a range of issues: venue protection, motorcades, public order, crowd management and general patrolling so they will be in cars, on push bikes, on foot, and we will have the helicopter up,” he said.

“We have a standing commitment to be patrolling places of mass gatherings, places like railway stations and bus terminals. That is ongoing, and will certainly continue throughout G20 because of the overall threat environment.”

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Residents living in the declared area can expect road closures for up to an hour because of motorcades.

Police have predicted the number of motorcades could reach the “high hundreds”.

US President Barack Obama is reportedly flying into Amberley air base at Ipswich in the early hours of Saturday morning instead of Brisbane Airport for security reasons. He will take a chopper from there to the Marriott Hotel, where he will spend a few hours before delivering a speech to students, possibly at the University of Queensland.

Meanwhile, civil libertarians fear residents could be unfairly targeted.

“It seems many people simply have no idea about their rights with these new G20 police powers,’’ Queensland Council for Civil Liberties president Michael Cope said.

“These are extreme powers, particularly in that they are being applied where thousands of people live, and will be going about their daily business and likely to be carrying some things on the prohibited list.”