[1] Born in the goldfields town of Clunes in Victoria, Robbie MacDonald moved to Brisbane in 1881 with his mother and his stepfather, Justice A.

[2] After attending Brisbane Boys Grammar School MacDonald studied dentistry at the University of Pennsylvania, where he excelled.

The English player and writer C. B. Fry said of him in 1901: "he pays extreme attention to not getting out, and has no regard for the time it takes to make his runs.

"[4] In a match for Leicestershire against Sussex in 1902 he batted for three and three-quarter hours for 33, in what an English newspaper called "a wonderfully patient innings".

[9] His only first-class century for Queensland came on the state team's tour of New Zealand in 1896–97, when he made 114 against Hawke's Bay, adding 228 for the sixth wicket with Owen Cowley.