Kenny Barging is a Family owned and operated business, which has been serving the wider Marlborough Sounds Community since 1857.
We pride ourselves on being able to assist our customers, making their jobs straight forward and efficient. We strive to work alongside our customers to ensure that items and jobs are delivered on time and in a safe manner.
Interested in using our community van?
Our Services
We are able to assist with the following services.
General cargo cartage
Building materials and House lots
Cement Trucks and associated pumping gear
Heavy machinery, Diggers & Trucks
Rubbish, Skips & Bins
Vehicles
Transport of Truck Units
Livestock Transport
Crane lifting
On-Water & Marina services
Net cleaning
Septic Tank cleaning
Helicopter lifting
Salvage
Marine Farm servicing & construction
Mooring Servicing
Cable laying & retrieval
Friendly Team
If there is a job you would like to achieve that is not listed above, please give us a call, as we are happy to discuss your intentions and work towards achieving your desired outcome.
Our vessels Rongowai and Rongotia are equipped with Hi-ab cranes to assist with Loading and unloading of items on jetties or beaches. Our telelift loader is available to assist with unloading on-site if required, as well as forklifts and loaders at our yard for unloading of goods for delivery.
Arapawa Seafarms
My name is Mike Radon of Arapawa Seafarms. We are located at the entrance to Tory channel. We have a commercial Paua farm as well as sheep and beef. We have used Kenny Barging for the last 25 years. They bring in all our building supplies and do all our Livestock barging. They have never let us down! Couldn’t ask for a better, more professional team to work with. The personal service they give us is much appreciated. – Mike Radon
Foreshore Construction Ltd
Barging services are an important part of the puzzle to building our clients jetties within the Marlborough sounds. We need them to be reliable, well organised, efficient and highly competent - which is why we have partnered with Kenny Barging Picton for many years. Not only do they tick all the above boxes, their team are all nice people who we enjoy working alongside when the pressure is on to get the job done. We highly recommend. – Carl Slade, Foreshore Construction Marlborough
Our History
Kenny Barging has been involved in the Commercial Marine Industry throughout the Marlborough Sounds since 1857.
Business founders Courtney his wife Georgiana Kenny from Double Cove in Queen Charlotte Sounds, transported Family and Farm goods from Picton to destinations around the wider Marlborough Sounds.
Aylmer Kenny, Courtney’s second son then carried on the business using Steam Launches, servicing routes between Picton, Nelson and Wellington.
Aylmer’s son Mervyn Kenny and wife Florence Bowden took over the business ,and it’s vessels. There was plenty of work with working farms, the Whaling Station in Tory Channel, the Royal Mail run, as well as passenger transport.
On his return from World War II, William Kenny the second son of Mervyn, and his wife Sylvia continued operating the business and operated under the name ‘Red Funnel Launches’. The business provided a variety of services including passenger transport, Logging, Fishing trips, Farming and Family goods, Dive charters, and the Royal Mail run. The fleet of vessels increased to include the Ramona, Rio Rita, Rawene, Rongo, Reomoana and the water taxi Reowai. In 1980 William and Sylvia sold the business to their son Gary and his wife Valerie Kenny.
In April 1980, Gary and Valerie changed the company name to ‘Kenny Barging’ which meant the business’s sole focus went to Barging work, with the Log industry, Aquaculture, Salmon farming, Salvage work and general cartage.
Gary and Valerie provided barging services to the Marlborough Sounds community for 39 years, with assistance from a fantastic team including their Grandson Liam Black.
Liam has now taken the reigns as Head skipper and is the seventh generation of the Kenny Family to work within the business.
In 2019, Gary and Valerie decided to retire and sold the business to their Grandson Liam and the family team at O’Donnell Park Barging Limited.
2021 saw Kenny Barging alongside O’Donnell Park Barging Limited and Nautilus Pacific Maritime Contractors purchase a longstanding family marine business, Johnson’s Barge Service Limited located in Havelock from Peter and Jennie Johnson. Johnson’s Barge Service has been operating in the Marlborough Sounds, D'Urville & Nelson Area since 1919.
Kenny Barging have two vessels in their fleet the MV Rongowai which means “Listen to the Water” and MV Rongotia which means “Listen to the Wind”
Both vessels have a special place within the business, are individually unique, and have strengths that complement each other. Both vessels were built and designed by Gary Kenny.
The name ‘Kenny Barging Picton’, continues and we look forward to servicing the Marlborough Sounds for many years to come.
Contact Us
We’d love to hear from you. Call us now on 03 573 6155 or send a message using the form below we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.
Broadspectrum
I had worked with Gary Kenny and Kenny Barging for a number of years on some pretty specialised type of work (Subaqueos Cables) and had all our jobs go well. The team at Kenny Barging have followed in Gary’s footsteps, with being extremely helpful with our specialised requirements, helped us immensely with making sure the gear we used was available and operational for the four jobs in four days, and flexible enough for us to make some changes to the jobs reasonably close to the confirmed dates we set for the jobs to be done. We used some other outside contractors for parts of the job, and the Kenny Barging Team was ready and willing to receive the goods being delivered on various days, although they were involved in other work. Only wish we could get the same professionalism and dedication from some of our other suppliers. - Mark Shepherd Team Leader Broadspectrum
Our Partner Companies
