[1] His mother Barbara Evans,[1] grandfather Charles Merritt and great grandmother Emily Wedge were indigenous Australians of the Wiradjuri people, Aboriginal farming families at Blakney and Pudman Creeks, New South Wales.

[2] In 1965, while riding his bicycle home from Heathcote High School in New South Wales (NSW), he was accidentally hit by a car and became a paraplegic wheelchair user at 13 years of age.

[3] After spending twelve months in hospital he returned home to be cared for by his mother, Barbara, and stepfather Robert (Bob) Evans.

[5] The New South Wales Association for training the Disabled in Office Work (NADOW), awarded Barrett the honour of "Trainee of the Year".

He was one of the first NADOW trainees to operate an Offset Printing Press from a wheelchair during his rehabilitation in the spinal unit of Royal North Shore Hospital Sydney.

Barrett, an electrical technician at the poker machine company Nut and Muddle, Darlinghurst a suburb of Sydney, worked Monday to Friday for eight years and in the evenings he concentrated on his athletic training.

Barrett was left an incomplete quadriplegic with brain stem damage and after two years in hospital, returned to his home in Heathcote, NSW.