Joseph Silver Collings was born on 11 May 1865 in Brighton, England. The son of Joseph and Mary Collings, he went to secondary school and became an apprentice journalist on the 'Sussex Daily News'. He arrived in Brisbane in 1883 and worked as a farm labourer, in various commercial jobs and failed in a selection he took up at Mooloolah. In 1886 he married Kate McInerney and had three sons and one daughter. 

Collings was founder and President of the Queensland Federated Clerks Union and Secretary of the Bootmakers Association. In 1912 he organised the Brisbane Strike and was organiser of the Australian Labor Party in Queensland (1912-35). Collings made several unsuccessful attempts to enter the Queensland Parliament - to represent Bowen (1888), Toobul (1899), Bulimba (1908, 1909 and 1912) and Murilla (1915). He finally became a member of the Legislative Council in 1920 until it was abolished in 1922.  

In 1932, Collings entered federal Parliament as a Senator for Queensland. He was subsequently Leader of the Opposition in the Senate (1935-41) during successive United Australia Party Governments. In the Curtin Government, Collings was Leader of the Government in the Senate (1941-43), Minister for the Interior (1941-45) and Minister-in-Charge of the Allied Works Council (1942-45). In this period he was also President of the River Murray Commission and Chairman of the Board of Management of the Australian War Memorial (1941-45) and a Member of the Balmoral Shire Council.

In the Chifley Government, Senator Collings was President of the Executive Council (1945-46) and Leader of the Australian delegation to the 29th Session, International Labour Conference (Montreal, 1946). He retired from federal politics in 1950, and died on 20 June 1955 at Sandgate.


Sources

Joan Rydon, A Biographical Register of the Commonwealth Parliament
 1901-1972
Who's Who in Australia 1947, 1953