George Wallace Nicoll and his younger brother Bruce Baird Nicoll were the sons of a Scottish shipwright from Dundee who came to the Colony in the late 1840's (about 1848) and had a shipyard in Sydney.

George and Bruce Nicoll entered the shipping trade from Sydney to the Northern Rivers of New South Wales, and were the first to introduce "Screw Steamers" on the coastal run.  The first of these was the "Bonnie Dundee" which arrived in 1877.

The two brothers set about trying to monopolise the passenger and cargo trade to the Clarence, Richmond and Tweed Rivers and later included Brisbane on their runs.

Before the screw propelled "ship" Bonnie Dundee" was introduced on the run, they had sailed the brigantine "Wallace & Bruce" to the Big River country in the timber trade from 1869 until she was sunk near the Heads in 1878. It was said that the family also had an interest in The Cedar at Bald Hill, or Bexhill, at the end of the 1850's and they were part owners of the 78 ton "Wallaby" with Edmund Coleman, a Lismore merchant. The "Nicoll Line" ships always docked at Coleman's Wharf. The brothers commissioned new steamers at the rate of one per year.  The "Truganni", "Richmond", "Australian" and "Lismore" were the first group of steamers commissioned.

Bruce Nicoll became a member of Parliament for the Richmond electorate in 1889, leaving George to run the shipping business.  George expanded the shipping line to include a Brisbane and Fiji run.  It was on one of these voyages that George had to put down a mutiny by Fijian crew. During the mutiny, George was hit over the head with a grapnel and although he recovered, lie never really regained his full health.

George Nicoll's fast steamers allowed the dairy industry of Northern New South Wales to gain access to the Sydney markets and thus assisted in the foundation of NORCO, the large dairy products company which still has a large market share of the Australian Dairy Industry.

In 1891, two events occurred which ended the Nicoll involvement in coastal shipping.  Bruce Nicoll, who had entered Parliament", had worked hard to gain the construction of the railway to Lismore.  On the 20th March, 1891 Bruce Nicoll, John Perry and Thomas Ewing attended the official turning of the first sod of the construction of the railway by the Hon. Bruce Smith.  That year George Nicoll sold out to the North Coast Steam Navigation Company, thus ending an era.

The family had interests on the Gold Coast and Nicoll's Creek and Nicoll's Bridge at the back of Currumbin are named after this family.  Clan members Graham Nicoll and Angus Nicoll are of this family.