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. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 2020.