He was a professional violin player and amateur photographer and claims to have seen the first exhibit of motion pictures at the Empire Theatre in London.
[5] He was the first person to film the Melbourne Cup from start to finish in 1904, and shot several "scenic movies" for the New Zealand and New South Wales railways.
"[4] In August 1911 Barrett returned to Australia from an overseas trip and decided to make drama films for Wests.
[15] He made a series of thrillers for the company, often with the same cast: The Strangler's Grip (1912), The Mystery of the Black Pearl (1912), The Eleventh Hour (1912) and A Silent Witness (1913).
[17] He worked as a cinematographer on films such as The Joan of Arc of Loos (1916), Raymond Longford's The Mutiny of the Bounty (1916) and Jack Gavin's The Murder of Captain Fryatt (1917).
Barrett intended to make a film with Dorothy Brunton but when she became unavailable obtained the rights to The Monk and the Woman (1917).
He made the war film Australia's Peril (1917) and shot footage for A Romance of the Burke and Wills Expedition of 1860 (1918).
Barrett was cinematographer (and possibly uncredited director) on the first two movies from Snowy Baker, The Enemy Within (1918) and The Lure of the Bush (1918), co producing the latter.
Barrett then formed his own film company with solicitor Barry Kenward, with whom he made three features: A Girl of the Bush (1921), Know Thy Child (1921) and A Rough Passage (1922).
A trade paper called him "A cheerful personality... a man who thoroughly knows his job, and one who could reca11 many interesting reminiscences about anything or anybody associated with the picture business in Australia.