[4] Following his army service, he returned to Melbourne University to study a Master of Arts in German, but was recruited into ASIO in April 1951 before he completed the degree.
[5] Barbour's early work at ASIO saw him posted to the Netherlands and Italy as an immigration official, to prevent Communists migrating to Australia.
The day after the election of Labor's Gough Whitlam as Prime Minister in 1972, Whitlam's soon-to-be appointed Attorney-General Lionel Murphy (ASIO's responsible minister), met with Barbour to inform him in no uncertain terms that the agency's days of autonomy and lack of ministerial and parliamentary oversight were over.
[8] The ensuing strained relationship between the Whitlam government and ASIO culminated when Murphy raided its Melbourne headquarters on 15 March 1973.
Confidential documents released by the National Archives in 2008 revealed that Barbour's dismissal was by bipartisan agreement between Whitlam and Opposition Leader Malcolm Fraser, and had been recommended by Justice Robert Hope as part of the Hope Royal Commission into the intelligence services.