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Three day short course for technical and operational staff in coal mines presented by: • Alex Duran (PSM) • Prof Olivier Buzzi (UoN) • Prof Anna Giacomini (UoN) This course is designed to provide a basic understanding of the mechanics of soils and rocks as they relate to the management of coal mining operations. It is aimed at technical and operational staff who are responsible for the safe conduct of coal mining operations. It will facilitate improved understanding and interpretation of common geotechnical phenomena encountered in mining, underpin more informed decisions and promote more effective dialogue between geotechnical professionals and [...]

Dear BOHOGS Member, You are invited to complete the BOHOGS Member Survey for 2026. If you could please provide feedback at your earliest convenience, the survey results will be used by the committee to improve BOHOGS and to plan for future events. All survey responses are anonymous. To complete the survey: Please find the Survey Link in your email sent from BOHOGS, or Goto the BOHOGS Linkedin group post here -> https://www.linkedin.com/BOHOGS BOHOGS Committee

See below for the presentation slides from the BOHOGS 2025 Annual General Meeting (AGM) that was held at the BOHOGS End of Year Technical forum (27th of November 2025). BOHOGS 2025 AGM Presentation Slides Summary of AGM: The Bowen Hunter Open Cut Geotechnical Society (BOHOGS) held its Annual General Meeting on November 27, 2025, at The Sebel Hotel Brisbane and via Teams. Highlights from 2025 Active Year: BOHOGS participated in a range of industry events, including site visits, technical forums, university engagement days, and workshops. Notable events included the Saraji Site Visit, multiple Brisbane Technical Forums, the QUT Industry Networking Evening, [...]

See below for the presentation that the UQ Geotechnical Engineering Centre gave at the rock testing workshop about their "Rock Laboratory Testing and Field Monitoring". https://bohogs.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/UQ-Geotechnical-Engineering-Centre-presentation-BOHOGS-2025.pdf For more information regarding the UQ Geomechanics Engineering Centre – Testing Laboratory, please see the UQ Lab Testing Capability Statement or contact Sebastian Quintero (s.quintero@uq.edu.au).

On Monday, 27th October 2025, BOHOGS and BBUGS co-hosted the Rock Laboratory Testing Workshop at The University of Queensland, St Lucia. This technical event provided a practical introduction to key laboratory testing methods for rocks, with a strong focus on coal measures rocks and their application in coal mine geotechnical engineering. The workshop featured: Theory sessions led by Dr Kai Koosmen (PSM), covering how to scope and interpret rock and defect tests for mining applications. A laboratory visit guided by Mr Sebastian Quintero Olaya and Dr Chenming Zhang (UQ Geomechanics Engineering Centre), showcasing advanced geomechanical testing and monitoring techniques. Attendance Highlights: [...]

A big thank you to the GroundProbe team for hosting the twenty two BOHOGS members (and 25 or so members online) at the GroundProbe office Brisbane on 17/10/2025. It is a huge effort to put together such an event and the BOHOGS members and committee appreciate it. We value GroundProbe's continued support of BOHOGS!

BOHOGS are seeking Expressions of Interest for the following committee positions for 2026: Chair Vice Chair General Members If you would like to join to BOHOGS committee, please contact Jiwoo Ahn (Jiwoo.Ahn (at) rocscience.com). BOHOGS Committee 2026 BOHOGS Committee Chair: VACANT Past Chair: Jiwoo Ahn Vice Chair: VACANT Secretary: Kathryn Young (Saduni Wijeweera currently filling in) Treasurer: Paul Davies Webmaster: Leigh Bergin QLD Representative: Peter Mackin NSW Representative: Will Norie Sponsor Coordinator: Gurshaan Virk Young Member Representative: Saduni Wijeweera, Gadha Vrinda Gopan General: Lewis Harmsworth, Marcus Jones, Sache Aumua, VACANCIES

GROUNDPROBE GEOTECHNICAL SCHOLARSHIP Applications are now open! Are you a 2nd, 3rd or 4th year geotechnical, civil engineering, or mining student? If yes, apply today! What is the GroundProbe Geotechnical Scholarship? The Scholarship is a fully funded program for 2nd, 3rd and 4th year Engineering students from Australia and Papua New Guinea with an interest in Geotechnical Engineering. This year, six students will take part in two weeks of full-time training at GroundProbe’s largest Geotechnical Monitoring Centre in Balikpapan, Indonesia from 17–28 November, including cultural experiences. The program is followed by nine site visits to locations close to students, including sites [...]

BOHOGS committee members, Lewis Harmsworth (Stanmore), Jiwoo Ahn (RocScience) and Leigh Bergin represented BOHOGS at the QUT CESS Companies and Canapes Industry Networking Evening on the 4/9/2025. The aim of attending the event was to promote open cut geotechnical engineering as a career for civil engineers in the mining industry. There were plenty of conversations with students who were keen to know more about mining and the career of mine geotechnical engineers.

Dr Davide Guccione from the University of Newcastle is looking to create a database of material characterization from different rock types and strengths. This will support his rockfall fragmentation project and is also relevant to an ACARP rockfall project at UoN. Please reach out to davide.guccione (at) newcastle.edu.au if you would like to be involved. Davide is looking to gather information from borehole and subsequent lab characterization, including: Rock type and condition (fresh, weathered, slightly weathered, etc.) From Unconfined Compressive Strength (UCS) tests: UCS Secant Elastic Modulus (at failure) Tangent Elastic Modulus From Brazilian Tests (Indirect Tensile Tests): Tensile strength Specimen dimensions [...]