Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott During An Official Visit To Putrajaya, Malaysia
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott speaks at a joint news conference with his Malaysian counterpart Najib Razak during an official visit in Putrajaya September 6, 2014. Reuters/Olivia Harris

Brisbane's streets are brimming with security forces, who are holding drills in the run up to the G20 Summit on Nov. 15 and 16. The summit will see heads of state from 20 major economies, 4,000 delegates and 3,000 media persons converging at Brisbane, the capital city of Queensland.

Brisbane has already seen a series of military exercises ahead of the summit. On Sunday, at around midnight, an operation was held at at the Eagle Street Pier where Black Hawk helicopters, speed boats and battle-ready soldiers took part. According to Major General Stuart Smith, the Australian Defence Force, or ADF, will be staging more G20 training exercises in the days to come. "There'll be a variety of searches and rehearsals we'll do in the coming weeks in the lead-up to the actual event," Smith said, as reported in Brisbane Times.

Smith thanked the Brisbane public for their patience and explained the rehearsals are part of a range of counter-terrorist, search and airspace safety surveillance rehearsals in preparation for the G20 summit. A similar training exercise was held at the Port of Brisbane last week.

Huge Deployment

Sky News reports Queensland police will be tracking destructive protest groups who may try to disturb the summit. It is confirmed there will be deployment of 4,500 Queensland police officers, 1,500 interstate and New Zealand officers, Australian Federal Police and defence forces. Special teams of the ADF personnel are carrying out counter-terrorism exercises at the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services Academy at Brisbane.

All the assigned soldiers are being tested by way of staged terrorism and hostage situations. They are using tactical equipments and simulated ammunition. According to Smith, the ADF alone will deploy more than 900 soldiers in Brisbane with 1,000 more on standby. Then, there will be ADF specialist soldiers and military dogs to sweep the conference venues, hotels and waterways before the summit opens.

South Bank Curbs

Meanwhile, Courier and Mail reports Brisbane's South Bank Cultural Precinct will be declared a high-security G20 no-go zone during the summit. This is to allow Prime Minister Tony Abbott to entertain the visiting world leaders. As a result, Queensland Art Gallery, State Library and Gallery of Modern Art will be a restricted zone from Saturday, Nov 15. The plan is to have the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre as the venue for top-level talks and to make the South Bank Cultural Precinct available for the Prime Minister's use.