The shear and compressive properties of aggregated alumina particles are determined as functions of volume fraction and the strength of the interparticle attraction. Over a range of volume fractions, yield stresses, tau(y), elastic moduli, the strain delimiting the extent of the linear elastic response, and compressive yield stress, P-y, are well described by power-law functions of volume fraction, while the role of interparticle attractions can be accounted for by expressing these mechanical properties as (phi/phi(g) - 1)(n), where phi(g) captures the strength of particle attractions and n the microstructure. The links between compressive and shear properties are well described by linear elastic models where the P-y and tau(y) are a function of Poisson’s ratio which, for the suspensions investigated has a value near 0.49.