McRobbie was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1934. In 1958 he moved to Australia and worked as a teacher in the 1960s in Papua New Guinea. He is currently a full-time writer but has previously worked as a television and radio producer, a ship's engineer, and a college lecturer. McRobbie's first published work was in 1976 with a collection of stories, entitled Talking Tree and Other Stories. In 1991 he started writing the series of Wayne which he adapted in 1996 into a television series entitled The Wayne Manifesto. In 2000 he created the television series Eugenie Sandler P.I. and was short-listed for the Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Award for older readers for his novel, Tyro. In 2002 his novel Mum, Me, and the 19th C was a finalist for the Aurealis Award for best young-adult novel.

Novels

Wayne

• The Wayne Manifesto (1991)
• Waxing with Wayne (1993)
• The Wayne Dynasty (1993)
• The Wages Of Wayne (1994)
• Wayne in the Wings (1994)
• A Whole Lot of Wayne (2008)

Other novels

• Punch Lines (1987)
• Head Over Heels (1990)
• The Fourth Caution (1991)
• This Book Is Haunted (1993)
• Timelock (1993)
• Mandragora (1994)
• Prices (1995)
• See How They Run (1996)
• Mum, Me, the 19c (1999)
• Tyro (1999)
• Eugenie Sandler P.I. (2000)
• Fergus Mcphail (2001)
• Mum, Me, and the 19th C (2002)
• Strandee (2003)
• Mad Arm of the Y (2005)

Collections

• Talking Tree and Other Stories (1976)
• Flying with Granny and Other Stories (1989)

Short fiction

• "Album" (1995) in Dark House (ed. Gary Crew)

Source: Fantastic Fiction, ISFDB

• The Wayne Manifesto (1996—1997) writer of 26 episodes, adapted from the Wayne series
• See How They Run (1999) adapted from McRobbie's 1996 novel See How They Run
• Eugenie Sandler P.I. (2000) creator and writer
• Fergus McPhail (2004) creator and writer of 26 episodes

Source: IMDB

Aurealis Awards

• Best young-adult novel
• 2002: Nomination: Mum, Me, and the 19th C

Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Award

• Older Readers
• 2000: Nomination: Tyro