The damage of the rock is associated with the growth of microcracks and brittle fracturing, and the analysis of acoustic emission (AE) signals is well suited to study this phenomenon. In this paper, potential use of AE and the Kaiser effect in detecting and assessing the amount of rock damages has been investigated in the laboratory study using Gosford sandstone under cyclic loading conditions. The experimental results show that Kaiser effect occurred reliably, and that rock damage behaviour can be assessed with a new suggested parameter described here in.