Police divers to trawl Brisbane River ahead of G20 summit as security operation widens to allow for water transport of world leaders Boats could transport world leaders almost all the way from the airport to the city but the security surrounding such an operation would impact on river traffic. POLICE divers will have to trawl the Brisbane River for potential hazards ahead of the G20 summit with some world leaders expected to be carried to their hotels by luxury cruisers. It would provide the city with an unprecedented chance to show off one of its finest natural assets but - like everything to do with G20 - would mean some additional pain for residents. The police officer temporarily in charge of the security operation yesterday confirmed river transport was being explored as a way of moving leaders through Brisbane. Acting Assistant Commissioner Graham Coleman said they could not divulge transport plans in detail. "We will have some control over the river in the city reaches ... and we expect there will be an impact on personal pleasure craft on the river," he said. There will be some changes to the way commercial traffic operates, but commercial traffic will still be able to operate on the river. He said the river was not necessarily an "easier" option than the road network in terms of security risks for the world's most powerful group of people. "In the river there's a waterline, and everything below the waterline is as much of a danger to us as above the water so if we use the river for any of those things there's a whole lot of work we need to do underwater in the river," he said. It adds a whole set of new challenges to what we need to secure. With US President Barack Obama staying at the waterfront Stamford Plaza hotel, a trip around Gardens Point, past the Kangaroo Point cliffs to the convention centre at South Bank would take just minutes - and likely be a far more pleasant option than a motorcade, although usually streets are cleared and traffic lights switched to green for his fleet of vehicles. In theory, boats could travel almost all the way from the airport to the city. Police were unlikely to be informed of the leaders' travel plans until a few weeks before the November summit, Mr Coleman said. It's something that we're working with our Commonwealth partners on, how best to manage it, because we don't know when they get here, we honestly don't know. As part of their preparations, police have brought forward new weaponry orders. Mr Coleman said that meant extra firearms would be available to the 3500 Queensland police working on the event. "We'll build up our resources and retire the older stuff after the summit," he said. There's nothing in particular new that we're getting but we will have an increased capacity at the time. The additional police being brought in from interstate and New Zealand to bolster the Queensland contingent would be required to bring their own gear. We would expect that if a policeman from NSW is coming up here to do a job around venue security, he or she would come up and bring with them what they normally would use operationally - so a load-bearing vest, a Glock and OC spray. Queensland Police are responsible for the security at the G20 summit in Brisbane and the preceding finance minister's meeting in Cairns in September. Mr Coleman said that it was the biggest security operation undertaken anywhere in Australia.