Barrie served at sea as part of the commissioning crew of HMAS Brisbane, which included a seven-month tour of duty in Vietnam, during 1969.

Following this post, he was promoted to commodore and served as Director RAN Surface Warfare School and Commanding Officer of HMAS Watson from 1991 to 1992.

[5][2] As CDF, Barrie became involved in the "Children Overboard Affair" of 2001, a high-level political controversy which occurred during the Australian federal election campaign.

Barrie was the last Australian Government official to publicly support Prime Minister John Howard's assertion that refugees had thrown their children overboard from their sinking vessel.

A graduate of the Britannia Royal Naval College, Barrie completed through part-time study a Bachelor of Arts with majors in International Relations and Politics in 1983 and was conferred a Master of Business Administration in 1996 by Deakin University.