Kernot migrated to Australia with his family in 1851[1] and was educated at the National Grammar School, Geelong, and matriculated at the University of Melbourne in 1861.

He left the water-supply department in 1875, and during the next three years acted as consulting engineer to Louis Brennan in connexion with his torpedo.

Kernot also assisted Francis Ormond in the organization of the Working Men's College of Melbourne, and was president of this institution from 1889 to 1899.

Kernot wrote many papers for technical journals; an important work was On Some Common Errors in Iron Bridge Design, which appeared in 1898, an enlarged second edition was published in 1906.

A younger brother, Wilfred Noyce Kernot, born in 1868, was for many years a lecturer at the University of Melbourne, and from 1932 to 1936 was professor of engineering.