What a year 2015 was for BOHOGS! Great to see so many people supporting the BOHOGS group through the year with attendance to the events and presenting.  We explored a bit of the East Coast with three events in the Bowen Basin, two events in the Hunter Valley and two events in Brisbane. Not only did we support the geotechnical fraternity this year but we also instigated a new project of use to the coal mining industry and developed opportunities for university students coming through the ranks and our geological brothers and sisters.

The BOHOGS Year consisted of:

  • March Ensham Coal Mine site visit QLD where members were provided the opportunity to see the infamous flooded pits and a variety of conditions that the site has to contend with.
  • March Drayton Coal Mine site visit NSW offered members the opportunity to visit this site before production has ceased.
  • April BBUGS and BOHOGS UQ Industry BBQ, providing students studying mining geotechnical and civil geotechnical degrees with the chance to ask the ‘hard questions’ of our members.
  • June Middlemount Coal Mine site visit QLD where Barry Ward shared the stories of mine inception, the journey and where Peabody have come to including all the interesting failures along the way.
  • August Liddell Coal Mine site visit NSW including the opportunity to learn from Keith Steward and John Simmons with a morning Galena Training session.
  • In October the coal geotechnical groups provided the largest contingency of papers than any other category to the BBGG 2015 Symposium held every five years. We had a great turn out with the BBUGS and BOHOGS sponsoring the Symposium with an icebreaker on the first evening.
  • And we have ended up with our 2015 BBUGS/BOHOGS Suppliers Day that gets bigger and bigger.

Some of the major achievements in 2015 have been instigated by the BOHOGS committee members.  Alison McQuillan and John Latilla have paved the way for the coal mining industry to get behind the LSRT Laboratory Strength Reduction Taskforce which is now includes researchers from the University of Queensland and University of New South Wales submitted as an ACARP project.

The UQ BBQ enabled a number of student thesis projects with industry support plus providing students with an opportunity to learn more about the mining industry and the target for the next BBGG Symposium in 2020 might just be a geotechnical landslide.  Further details on the achievements of BOHOGS in 2015 can be found in the attached.

Thank you again to our 2015 Sponsors, BOHOGS and BBUGS committee members, mine sites that volunteer their people and the wonderful presenters brave enough to share learning’s with the geotechnical fraternity.  And of course you the member for making the group what it is today. Looking forward to what 2016 will bring.