A principal warfare officer and anti-submarine warfare specialist, Goldrick has seen sea service around the world with the RAN and on exchange with the British Royal Navy, including the patrol vessel, the frigates, and, and the destroyer. He has served as executive officer of and. He was commanding officer of and twice commanded the frigate before serving as the inaugural commander of Australian Surface Task Group. During this posting, he commanded the Australian task group deployed to the Persian Gulf in early 2002 and also served as commander of the multinational naval forces conducting maritime interception operations to enforce UN sanctions on Iraq, including units from the RAN, the United States Navy, the Royal Navy and the Polish Armed Forces. He was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for this service. Goldrick's shore postings have included serving as aide to the Governor-General of Australia, as an instructor on the RAN's Principal Warfare Officer course, as officer-in-charge of the RAN's tactical development, tactical training and warfare officer training faculty, as research officer and later as chief staff officer to the Chief of Navy, as director of the RAN Sea Power Centre and as director-general of military strategy in the Australian Department of Defence. For his service, particularly at the Sea Power Centre, he was awarded the Conspicuous Service Cross. He took command of the Australian Defence Force Academy in September 2003. He was promoted to rear admiral and assumed duties as commander of border protection in May 2006. In May 2008, he was appointed commander of joint education, training and warfare. After completing his posting in August 2011, he served as acting commandant of the Australian Defence Force Academy until March 2012. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2014. Goldrick has lectured in naval history and contemporary naval affairs at many institutions. He spent 1992 as a research scholar at the US Naval War College. He has been a long-term and active member of the Australian Naval Institute, including a significant period on the institute's governing council, where he was president between 2005 and 2008. He is an overseas corresponding member of the Society for Nautical Research and has served several terms as a councillor of the Navy Records Society. In 2017, his book, Before Jutland, was awarded the Anderson Medal of the Society for Nautical Research for the best book of naval or maritime history published in 2015 and he was appointed a Fellow of the Society in 2018. Goldrick is married with two sons.
Published works
The King's Ships Were at Sea: The War in the North Sea August 1914 – February 1915
Reflections on the Royal Australian Navy, edited by T.R. Frame, J.V.P. Goldrick, and P.D. Jones.
Struggling for a solution – the RAN and the acquisition of a surface to air missile capability by P.D. Jones and James Goldrick.
Navies of South-East Asia: A Comparative Study, by James Goldrick and Jack McCaffrie.
Before Jutland: The Naval War in Northern European Waters August 1914 – February 1915
After Jutland: The Naval War in Northern European Waters June 1916 - November 1918
In addition, he has contributed to many other works, and to professional journals, including The United States Naval InstituteProceedings. As a junior officer he twice won the Guinness Prize of the British Naval Review. Among his important articles and chapter-length contributions are:
With the Battle Cruisers, by Filson Young with an introduction by James Goldrick
