He received a Diploma of Agriculture from Gatton College and then a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Queensland as a mature age correspondence student.
He held various jobs, including as an underground miner, tobacco farmer, College Principal in PNG, newsagency proprietor, as well as serving in the Citizen Military Forces from 1958 to 1959.
[1] Following Labor's victory at the 1989 state election, De Lacy became Treasurer and Minister for Regional Development.
Macarthur Coal listed in June 2001 with a market cap of $128 million and was taken over by Peabody Energy in 2011 for $4.9 billion.
He was also Chair of Australia's largest irrigated farm the Cubbie Group which went into voluntary administration towards the end of the Millennium Drought after three years of non production.