Barbara Schenkel worked in a variety of areas in Australia before joining the Victorian Education Department as a teacher. As well, she worked as a correspondent for the Polish Weekly (Victoria), Glos Polski (Melbourne), Polish News (Sydney) and Kurier Zachodni (Western Australia), as a broadcaster on the Polish language program of Radio 3EA and as a broadcaster and also editor of programs in English and Polish on Radio 3ZZZ. She has produced and appeared in stage plays, cabaret shows and reviews for the Polish community, as well as for children's theatre, secondary schools and radio programs. In the 1950s with Andrzej Chciuk she co-founded the Melbourne Polish theatre group 'Wesoła [Merry] Kookaburra'.

Schenkel has been a member of the Polish Theatre, the Ethnic Public Broadcasting Association of Victoria, the Polish Radio Committee, the Polish Cultural and Artistic Circle, the Poet's Union, the Fellowship of Australian Writers (FAW), the Australian Journalists Association (AJA), the Victorian Association of Multicultural Writers and a past member of Actors Equity. She has organised the group of international writers and poets from 15 different cultural backgrounds, Writers from Five Continents, who have given public readings during Fringe Festivals in Melbourne and on radio programs. In 1977 Schenkel received the Silver Order of Merit for her work from the Polish Government in Exile in London.