Colonel Barbara Edweina Audrey Starrett (née Maxwell; 6 October 1932 – 17 May 1991) was an Australian military officer and instructor.

Barbara Edweina Audrey Maxwell was born on 6 October 1932[1] in Rangoon, British Burma to the district commissioner.

Her childhood was spent traveling to various posts with her family, including Bangalore, Mussoorie and Mysore, in India,[2] before they settled in Perth, Western Australia, in 1946, where she attended Girdlestone School.

Stationed in Karrakatta with the Citizen Military Forces, she taught for two additional years, before being assigned to the Women's Royal Australian Army Corps (WRAAC) School in Georges Heights to take an officer's training course.

[2] Graduating with the top academic prize for a cadet in 1960, Maxwell was made a platoon commander of the WRACC School's Recruit Training Wing with the rank of 1st lieutenant.

Over the next several years, she participated in programs liaising with Austcare and the Australian Red Cross and was made chief instructor at the school.