He was born in England and was active in the Chartist movement before arriving in Australia during the Victorian gold rush, where he was associated with the Eureka rebellion.

[1] After the rebellion was quashed, Nicholls and his brother joined John Basson Humffray in petitioning Governor Charles La Trobe for an amnesty for the rebels.

He later joined The Star as editor and eventually took over its ownership, initially as sole proprietor from 1875 to 1880 and then in partnership with William Bramwell Withers and E. E. Campbell until 1883.

His poetry advocated "republicanism and secularism mixed with anti-authoritarianism", with support for "egalitarian socialism and a rejection of modernity and industrialism".

[3] Nicholls brought his Chartist views from England to Australia, but on the Victorian goldfields found his "doctrinaire internationalism was out of touch with the inchoate local protest".

[1] As editor of The Star, Nicholls supported constitutional democracy and opposed parliamentarians he regarded as demagogues, such as Charles Edwin Jones.

He was a strong supporter of public education, advocating for the establishment of free libraries and for the admission of working-class people to universities.