“We’re here to say thanks and to try and outdo the closing ceremony,” Ian McKinney said.

“The crowds here; this is a far better proposition just here."

“We expect the athletes to put in so many hours and days and weeks and years out of the life for their efforts and we should just say ‘thanks’.”

Mr McKinney's wife, Vicki, said the overwhelming crowd reaction showed the warm pride that Queenslanders held for their Games athletes.

“I just think it’s the smiles for them and the pride we have in them,” she said.

Australia’s 2018 Commonwealth Games athletes walked relaxed and happy among the thousands of Queenslanders who lined up in the Queen Street Mall, Albert Street and into King George Square to thank the athletes.

Before they began to walk, the kids leaned forward on the barricades eager to get a look at the athletes while the brass band played Waltzing Matilda.

Then they began walking, stopping here and there through the Mall from Brisbane Square on George Street.

Among them were gold medallists; 800-metre swimmer Ariarne Titmus, super walker Dane Bird-Smith, backstroke champion Mitch Larkin and the crowd favourite,T54 marathon winner Kurt Fearnley.

But there were many, many more; swimmers, bowlers, track athletes, able-bodied and and para-athletes.

Overall, Australian athletes won 198 medals at the 2018 Commonwealth Games; 90 gold, 59 silver and 59 bronze, with many other athletes recording "personal bests" in their events.

Marge Breitenbach came in to hug her grand daughter Caitlin Sargeant-Smith, a member of Australia’s 4x400metre track team, as she moved through the Queen Street Mall.

“Its family,” Ms Breintenbach said.

“I always support the young people no matter what. I don’t think Australian support the younger ones enough.”

Next to her were Novacastrians Pauline and Rodney Trappel, who came up with their grandchildren to say ‘thanks'.

“The grand kids went down to the Games for a week,” Mrs Trappel said.

“They had a top time; they absolutely loved it."

As the athletes moved through it got noisier and noisier.

The crowds called out asking for autographs and throwing streamers over the gold-suited athletes.

“Aussie Aussie Aussie! Oi Oi O!” rang out loudly and proudly with the athletes happily leaning against the barricades signing autographs.

It took nearly an hour for the athletes to walk down the Qurrn Street Mall, around the corner down Albert Street and across Adelaide Street into King George Square.

There, the crowd squinted into the early afternoon sun as Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk asked for three cheers for the Games team and lord mayor Graham Quirk gave the team the keys to the City of Brisbane.

“We honour you and we congratulate you for all that you have done in representing our nation of Australia,” Cr Quirk said.

“You have done us all proud, you gelled together as team, and we really thank you – and your families and all of those who have supported you – for the enormous effort you put in to your display as you represented our nation at the Games.”

Marathon gold medal winner Fearnley, who received tremendous warmth from Friday’s crowd, received the honorary keys to the city to another chant of “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Oi, Oi, Oi!”

Fearnley was in London last week, where he finished fifth in the London marathon.

On behalf of the athletes, Kurt said thanks for the crowds’ “kindness and generosity”.

“I experienced the generosity of the Queenslanders when we were in that bubble that was the Games and it was just beautiful,” he said.

“I think what was held on the Gold Coast was something really special and you should be proud of yourselves.”

But not everybody was happy with Friday's celebrations in the city centre.

The glitter explosion of coloured plastic that showered the crowd at the end of the celebration in King George Square angered scientists at the offices of the nearby Healthy Land and Water.

"The plastic floated down Ann Street and towards the river just a few hundred metres away," one scientist, who did not want to be identified, said.

"We've photos of the plastic slowly creeping towards the river where, if it does end up there, it poses extreme harm to marine wildlife and will ultimately end up floating out into Moreton Bay and polluting the pristine waterways in the area."