Barbara Vernon spent her early life in the NSW country town of Inverell, and was educated at the New England Girls' School, Armidale. Following service 1943-1946 in World War II in the WAAF, she returned to Inverell, where she worked as an announcer on radio station 2NZ, and also founded the 2NZ Dramatic Club, which broadcast local drama.

In 1959 she moved to Sydney, where she worked as a freelance writer, before joining the ABC drama department in 1961, as a reader, editor and script-writer. A prolific author (her ADB entry states that 'she wrote hundreds of scripts for both television and radio'), Vernon is perhaps best known for the long-running ABC TV series Bellbird (1967-1977), which she devised and initially wrote. Most of her radio plays and works for the stage remain unpublished.