[2] He was a partner in his father's firm, Henry Collins and Co., then took over one of the company's properties, Mallett, near Terowie, for himself.

[1][3][4] In 1928, he was elected to the Australian House of Representatives as the Country Party member for Wakefield, defeating long-serving Nationalist MP Richard Foster.

However, he was defeated in the election of the following year by the Nationalist candidate Charles Hawker.

[5] In 1932 he relocated to Adelaide and became a writer on agricultural topics, living "more or less in retirement".

Collins died in 1945 after a "considerable time" of ill health.