Shotcrete is often subject to poor ductility and cracking problems, particularly under high stresses. To address these issues, we investigated the feasibility of adding polypropylene macrofibres to shotcrete. To evaluate the supporting effect, we used dry shotcrete, wet shotcrete, and wet polypropylene macrofibre shotcrete as samples. We compared and analysed the mechanical response characteristics thereof in uniaxial compression tests by acoustic emission monitoring. The results showed that the three materials were brittle, but the ductility, residual strength, and bearing capacity of polypropylene macrofibre shotcrete were significantly enhanced. The energy absorption value of plain shotcrete was higher in the cracking stage, while that of polypropylene macrofibre shotcrete was higher in the post-peak stage, which indicated that the polypropylene macrofibre shotcrete had the characteristics of a high crack-initiation strength and toughness. Besides, the energy release from fibre shotcrete occurred after the peak stress rather than near the peak stress. The average energy absorbed by polypropylene macrofibre shotcrete was significantly higher than that in dry shotcrete and wet shotcrete, which suggested that polypropylene macrofibre shotcrete could mitigate the brittle instability of a shotcrete layer. Based on the test data, a constitutive model of damage statistics was established. The comparison between the experimental data and the fitting results could reflect the characteristics of the total stress-strain curve of such shotcrete. The results provide a basis for the optimisation of polypropylene macrofibre shotcrete layers.