 Rock bolts were first used in mining in the 1890s, with systematic use documented at the St Joseph Lead Mine in the U.S. in the 1920s.Rock bolts were applied to civil tunneling support in the U.S. and in Australia starting in the late 1940s.Rock bolts were used and further developed starting in 1947 by Australian engineers who began experimenting with four-meter-long expanding anchor rock bolts while working on the Snowy Mountains Scheme.