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McAullife attended school at St Joseph's College Gregory Terrace in Brisbane . In 1932 he played Rugby League for the Gregory Terrace firsts. He started playing senior rugby league in 1937 for the Northern Suburbs club, but with the outbreak of World War 2 he joined the AIF. He served as a Warrant Officer for five years, before being honourably discharged after service in the Middle East and New Guinea with the 2/2 Casualty Clearing Station. After the war McAullife worked with the Queensland Railways Audit Office. Whilst living at New Farm he formed social bonds with a number of Valleys players. In the late 1940s he moved Fortitude Valley's Brunswick Street, sharing a flat Roy Westaway , a former international representative playing for the Diehards. According to Duncan Hall , a former Queensland player who was also playing for Valleys: :(Ron) was one of those blokes who was always around the place... he knew everyone worth knowing, and everyone knew him. He drank at the Valley pub with us every night after work. In fact, he was one of those blokes who was the life of the party and who never seemed to want to go home. He was always around. McAullife was elected to the Valley's committee and became the club's delegate to the Brisbane Rugby League in 1951 . In 1952 he was elected chairman of the Brisbane Rugby League. In 1953 the Brisbane Rugby League was subsumed into the Queensland Rugby League (QRL). Ron McAullife became secretary to the organisation and began negotiations with the Brisbane City Council to lease Lang Park . On June 30 1971 McAullife was elected as a Senator for the Australian Labor Party in the Parliament Of Australia . He sat in the Senate until June 30 1981 . McAullife became president of the QRL in 1975. Although initially opposed to the idea, McAullife became a driving force behind the establishment of the State Of Origin series. The 1980s were to prove a golden period for rugby league in Queensland. In August 1988 McAullife passed away from a stroke. His funeral was held on August 17 1988 at St Partick's Catholic Church in Fortitude Valley. His pall bearers included Wally Lewis . In his obituary The Courier-Mail journalist Barry Dick wrote that "he loved a drink, loved an argument, and most of all, he loved company." SOURCE
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