Barrett's first feature Love Serenade (1996) was a film that explored, “how women can get completely the wrong idea about some men.”[3] It was shot almost entirely on location in Robinvale, Victoria.
The story concerns two young sisters who develop a fierce and competitive crush on their neighbour, a brooding and self-centred radio personality.
[4] The sisters are played by Miranda Otto and Rebecca Frith and George Shevtsov stars as the washed up deejay.
[4] The film is "about dreamers and schemers, isolation and redemption, populated with iconic places and people",[4] and stars Salvatore Coco as Joey, a desperately ambitious young man and Sacha Horler as his girlfriend Bonita.
[6] After winning a large settlement from an accident that leaves Bonita paraplegic, Joey starts a talent agency hoping to "make his mark on the world".
[5] In the film, Meredith and “her uncle George (Barry Otto), a lighthouse keeper who has come to replace the previous one.”[5] They arrive on the desolate island and meet the island's inhabitants, a family consisting of the mother Alma (Essie Davis), her husband Stanley (Rohan Nichol), and their daughter Nettie (Annie Martin).
[5] Similar to her character's romantic perils in Love Serenade, "Meredith is desperate for some kind of connection with men",[5] which drives her to have an affair with Stanley.
As the film continues, "the population of the island dwindles to two",[5] leaving Meredith in the company of Fleet (Marton Csokas), "a returned First World War soldier recovering form shell shock".
Barrett's second novel The Bus on Thursday (2018) tells the story of a young woman recently recovering from breast cancer who takes a job as teacher in a tiny school in a remote country town, where she finds herself set upon by demons.