7 Best Commercial Boat Hire Companies in Australia

Most commercial vessel hires go wrong before the motor starts.


The survey class doesn’t match the waterway. The barge can’t get under the bridge. Or the punt is still on a trailer two states away while your crew waits on the bank.


You need an AMSA-surveyed vessel that fits the draft, the load, and how you want the job run.


Wet hire if you need a commercially certified skipper. Dry hire if you’ve already got ticketed crew and you just need the platform.


These seven operators are the ones I’d put on a tender list. They don’t all do the same work.

What to lock in before you call

Ask three things first:


  • What class of operation do you need: smooth water, partially smooth, or open?
  • What’s the payload, including people, plant and fuel?
  • How does the vessel get to site: trailered, towed, or already in the region?


If a quote arrives without those answers, it isn’t a quote. It’s a number.


Trailer boats and small punts win on speed and remote access. Landing barges win on deadweight and beach landings. Jack-up platforms win when you need a stable deck for geotech, piling or jetty work.


Inland NSW is a good test of that. Plenty of river and park access sits a long way from a commercial marina, including country around the Golden Highway and Goulburn River National Park. If the vessel can’t be trailered, you’re paying for mobilisation before you’ve moved a single load.

Boab Commercial Marine

For jobs that don’t sit in one harbour, Boab Marine is the operator I see when the vessel has to travel.


They run a large trailer-boat, punt and modular barge fleet that can be sent around the country. Inboard vessels are in the mix. Hire is wet or dry.


That’s the practical difference. A locally berthed landing barge is no help if your site is a regional river, an alpine waterway, or a one-week silt curtain job.


All vessels are AMSA compliant. Skippers are commercially certified.


You can spec extras that actually show up on construction and survey work:


  • Cranes, winches and positioning systems
  • Launch and recovery frames
  • Generators and compressors
  • Silt curtains and log booms
  • Hydrographic survey and drop-camera support
  • Navaid and mooring inspections
  • Skippered support for film crews or events


Use them when the job is unusual, short, remote, or needs a vessel configured for the task.

Harcan Marine

Harcan is a construction and dive-support hire business, not a general charter desk.


Coverage is Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, the Northern Territory and into the Pacific. That matters if your program jumps states.


The fleet is named, which helps when you’re matching plant to a method:


  • Quantum: 10m West Coaster, about 16-knot cruise, davit
  • Terry and Santiago: 7.4m flat-bottom work barges
  • Dumbarge and Barney Dumbarge: bolt-together work platforms. Barney takes an 18-tonne load, three spud legs and a Fassi F65 crane
  • Bam Bam: 10m x 3.5m piling barge, four spud legs, 15-tonne rating


That’s the kit for underwater welding, NDT, salvage, piling, and moving crew and plant.


Short and long-term hire are both available. If you need spuds and a crane, start here before you mobilise something bigger than the job.

Australian Barge Hire

This one sits in a different category.


Through the Combifloat partnership, they supply modular floating and self-elevating platforms, not just workboats.


Sea Lift 6, a Combifloat C-5, is already in the fleet. It suits nearshore and inland work, especially geotech and construction in tight access.


The C-7 is the heavier nearshore option for jetty, breakwater, drilling and piling jobs that need deck capacity and extendable spuds.


The C-9 is the large-scale jack-up for major marine construction.


If your engineer is talking about a jack-up, don’t hire a dumb barge and hope the weather holds. Modular systems take more planning. You’re buying a working platform, not a taxi.

EnviroMarine Services

EnviroMarine is a Gold Coast and Brisbane waterfront contractor that also hires barges and work punts.


QBCC licence 735 498. They’ve been Gold Coast City Council’s primary barge services contractor since 2014. That tells you they work canals, revetment walls and council maintenance, not ocean towage.


The Enviro 5 is a useful snapshot of the smaller end of hire:


  • 2016 Class 2D, 6m aluminium work punt
  • 1,200 kg payload
  • Up to 10 people
  • Pusher bars and towing bollards
  • Front landing ramp
  • Yamaha F90


Typical work is revetment repair, void filling, grouting, soda blasting and anchoring systems. Enviro 3 and Enviro 4 dumb barges often run with it.


If your site is a canal, lake or river in SEQ, this is a tighter fit than a national hire desk.

Amity Trader

Amity Trader is the Moreton Bay and SEQ landing-barge operator. Brisbane, the Bay Islands, through to the Gold Coast.


Shallow water, tidal ramps, island landings. That’s their patch.


Sirenia is the big unit:


  • 28.3m long, 7.6m beam
  • 800mm draft
  • 110-tonne cargo deadweight
  • Deck about 22m x 7m
  • Class 2D/1D


They’ve used it for more than 600 house relocations. MEG is the smaller landing barge at 35 tonnes deadweight.


These are crewed charters. You’re hiring a skipper used to putting a ramp on a riverbank without chewing it up.


Good for fuel, vehicles, boats, riparian repair gear, and loads that don’t belong on a 6m punt. Not the right call for a trailer-boat survey job in western NSW.

Send It Marine

South Australia runs differently. Long river distances, flood work, salvage, and a lot of infrastructure that isn’t next to a commercial marina.


Send It Marine is based around Adelaide, with a Berri presence. They hire tinnies, punts, barges and marine plant across the state.


The same business does sunken and beached vessel recovery, divers, airbag jobs, and water-based inspections after flooding.


That’s relevant because the hire work and the emergency work share the same waterways.


If your project is in SA, a state operator is usually cheaper and faster than trucking a Queensland barge across the border for a week.

Wide Bay Marine Group

Wide Bay Marine Group covers Rainbow Beach through to Bundaberg. Tin Can Bay, Hervey Bay, Urangan, the Burnett.


Local tide and bar knowledge still matters on that coast.


They run four barges, including Coria, Manta Ray 1, Manta Ray 2 and Fraser Explorer.


Crewed hire for construction access, film support, environmental work, events, storm recovery, and moving vehicles or plant where there isn’t a useful boat ramp.


Stay local when the alternative is mobilising a capital-city fleet for a job the locals already do every week.

How I’d shortlist them

Match the hull to the task. Then match the operator to the coast.


  • Vessel needs to travel, and you want wet or dry hire: national trailer-boat fleets
  • Spuds, a crane and dive support across several states: Harcan Marine
  • Jack-up or modular platform for geotech or jetty works: Australian Barge Hire
  • SEQ canals and council-style waterfront work: EnviroMarine
  • Heavy landings in Moreton Bay: Amity Trader
  • SA rivers, salvage and plant hire: Send It Marine
  • Wide Bay coastline: Wide Bay Marine Group


Then check the paperwork: current Certificate of Survey, Certificate of Operation, skipper tickets if it’s wet hire, and a mobilisation plan that covers ramp access, draft and weather windows.


The right company is the one that asks those questions before they talk day rate.

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