Emeritus Professor Collard completed his undergraduate degree at the Western Australian College of Advanced Education (WACAE), now known as Edith Cowan University, and entered the world of academia as a student support officer there, before eventually being offered a role lecturing in Noongar culture.

In 1996, he completed his Master’s by Coursework in literature and communications at Murdoch University, in which he analysed Noongar influence in South West WA.

Emeritus Professor Collard then went on to be Chair of Australian Indigenous Studies at Murdoch for more than a decade, and during this time he supported the next generation of scholars enrolled in Aboriginal Studies, while sharing his own journey and expertise.

His higher education career then saw him taking on roles across the WA sector as an Associate Professor at Curtin University, an adjunct professor at the University of Notre Dame and Winthrop Professor Level E at the University of Western Australia where he holds Emeritus status.

In 2014, he launched his research project Noongar-pedia, an online resource which adds Noongar language content to Wikimedia projects – this was the first resource of its kind.

In 2023, along with being the first Aboriginal Emeritus Professor at the University of Western Australia, Emeritus Professor Collard was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Education at Edith Cowan University.