"We have experienced people becoming more and more frustrated, so that goes into our planning and consideration as well," he said.

"People do get frustrated, they may have been angry this morning because of the football results ... I can assure you our responses are considered and measured."

Inspector Collins said police dealt with about 500 protests in the CBD each year.

"There is no offence as such in taking part in an unauthorised protest but offences may be committed in isolation to the actual march itself," he said.

"Assessments were made in real time about what the best course of action would be and based on those assessments this morning, it was decided to not take any arrest action.

"We were monitoring those intersections by various means and wherever possible we diverted traffic around those intersections. There were some people who were caught up in the traffic jam."

The traffic delays stretched about one block back from the activists, according to police.

"We are constantly engaged with these groups. We have our negotiators talk to them and we have contacts within each group that we can talk to and we do our best to discourage them or come up with alternative plans," Inspector Collins said.

"Part of our response [to next week's action] will be messaging to the public based on what we learn between now and next week ... with a view of respecting people’s right to protest and respecting those people who are affected by being unable to go about their day-to-day business."

The activists received a mixed response from drivers on Thursday morning.

Frustrated motorcyclist Nelson Portela said he understood what the group was doing, but believed there were better ways to get their message across.

"I know why they're doing it and it's perfectly fine, but when you're interrupting people getting to work it's inconsiderate and it's rude," he said.

"They're trying to save the temperature and global warming, but what about the people who actually need to get to work to earn money to put food in front of their kids?"

Glynn Holland-Leam said he understood it was an important issue and didn't mind being held up.

"I honestly don’t mind, it’s a pretty important thing they’re protesting for so go for broke, fight the good fight," he said.

"I was just dropping my wife off, so my day is not being impacted too heavily. But I understand other people do have places to be, but it’s an important thing.

Protest spokesman Sergeio said they were bringing the "climate emergency" to the forefront of society's mind.

"We don’t take pleasure in disrupting people. Our target is the government," he said.

"The government depends on compliance from its population, so if it's not protecting its population, the population has a duty to not comply and to force a response from the government."

The activists are building towards a "rebellion day" on August 6, where hundreds of people are expected to disrupt the river city.

Adani's Galilee Basin mine re-emerged as a hot political issue throughout the federal election campaign. Some blamed Labor's at-times ambivalent stance on the mine for its poor electoral showing in Queensland, before Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk sped up the approval process.