Entry of personnel under a vertical raise bored hole is not standard practice in Australia. Where access is required below a rise, mining operations must be confident that they understand the capacity of the ground control specified and installed. Physical modelling was conducted on Callie mine to evaluate the performance of 5 mm steel wire weldmesh secured to the base of a vertical raise bored hole of 1.4 m diameter._x000D_
Joint orientation data was used with Unwedge to calculate a series of potential wedges likely to form within the rise. The mass of the most likely wedges were then replicated by collecting rocks in 5 kg increments (10 per cent), which were allowed to freefall onto installed mesh at the base of a 40 m vertical rise. The results indicate that two sheets of mesh can retain a freefalling rock of at least 20 kg mass although rupture of strands can result._x000D_
This paper outlines the test conditions, expected results based on theoretical calculations and actual outcomes of the testing.