After emigrating to Yanchep in 1974 from Surrey, Barbara formed a youth club for local children before starting the first community school at the Two Rocks Marina. She saw the need for a regional school that would deal with the immediate requirements needed by local school age children; a school that would focus on the children’s individual needs whilst also helping them stay in formalised schooling for longer.

Backed by considerable parental and community support the school opened in 1976 in the only space available to them, the Sail Loft building in the Two Rocks Marina. The school originally catered only for the early high school years but expanded to include children from the ages of four to fifteen. Many struggling students blossomed in this new type of schooling method and have Barbara to thank for the different direction their lives have taken. Frequent truants and other problem students were often enrolled at Yanchep Community School and under the kind direction of the teachers and volunteers soon learnt the value of an education and how to conduct themselves respectfully.

In an extraordinary show of dedication Barbara managed the school whilst also writing music reviews for the West Australian paper, returning to her former career as a journalist. A mother of six children herself, she believes in the value of an excellent formal education as a foundation for an individual’s later achievements. The Yanchep Community School was eventually moved to factory units in Wangara before closing down, ending an era of considerable community involvement that lasted eight years.

As well as being a trained singer and musician Barbara has been extensively published by many magazines including Women’s Weekly and Woman’s Day and has also published several plays and short stories. Her first novel, The Boy from the Hulks, was published in 1994 followed in quick succession by several more successful novels.