[1] He sailed on the frigate Doris to Tenerife, China and the East Indies, before returning to Europe to study botany, mineralogy and chemistry.
In 1824 he was a surgeon on board HMS Blossom and travelled to Africa, Brazil, Chile, the Sandwich Islands, California, Kamchatka Peninsula, Taiwan and Mexico.
This was part of the expeditionary group, including the barque Parmelia, which set out from Portsmouth in February 1829 to found the colony of Western Australia.
[1] In 1831, Collie was allotted 500 acres (200 ha) of land in Albany, where he was appointed a Justice of the Peace and became the town's first government resident.
His decision to return to England was made too late; although he had embarked on HMS Zebra, he died before the ship left Western Australian waters.
[3] A Mexican bird species, the black-throated magpie-jay (Calocitta colliei Vigors, 1829), was named after him following his visit to the area on the Blossom in the 1820s.