Located in the southwestem part of Conception Bay, between Conception Harbour and Marysvale, about 68 km (42 mi) from St. John''''s, the town name comes from the mining industry. According to ENL citations, the first person listed as "having possessions" there was James Hedderson in 1766. The town''''s website provides a bit more information on the early history of this community and the connection to mining.

It was over 230 years ago that the fist settlers arrived at the picturesque Conception Bay Center town of Colliers. The first settler was reportedly James Hedderson, who came from England. The name Colliers is derived from the term "collier" which denotes an apprentice coal miner. Hedderson was such an apprentice.

Local family names dating back to 1778-1878 include Cole, Burke, Conway, Costigan, Ghaney, Griffin, Hearn, Mahoney, Murphy, McGrath, Ryan, and Whelan.

People driving along the old Conception Bay Highway rarely see the "real" Colliers. The town extends several miles out into the bay to include places such as Bedlam, Tinimond, The Dock, Burke''''s Cove, and The Point.

The beautiful town is situated about 20 kilometers north of Holyrood and some 70 kilometers from St. John''''s. Nestled in rolling hills that rise to a height of about 500 feet, Colliers is built around a safe harbour and is about 5 kilometers in length.

In 1836, when the population stood at 301, the town boasted 5 schooners which fished the Labrador coast. From 1860 to 1986 the population increased from 400 to almost 900.

While Mr. Hedderson may have been a collier, early settlers were, as one would expect they were predominantly fishermen. However, according to material included in the ENL, some of the early residents learned to cultivate the land and became farmers. It is there that it reported that there were 8,380 bushels of potatoes grown in Collier in 1836. According to The Old Farmer''''s Almanac website, a bushel would have been 50 pounds (22.7 kg) so that amounts to 419,000 pounds (1,90,055.2 kg) being grown in Colliers in a single year. Farming continued to be of importance, as did the fishery until the late 1800s as seen in this excerpt from the ENL:

In 1884 there were forty-nine farmers listed in the settlement and they cultivated 62 ha (154 acres), grew 2,609 barrels of potatoes, and owned 300 head of cattle. In the same year 1,194 barrels of capelin were caught and 1,220 quintals of codfish cured. The fishery, however, was not always dependable in the 1870s and 1880s, and men left it to work on the construction of the railway. Later, at the turn of the century, some men who lived in Colliers worked in the mines at Bell Island.

According to the most recent census, the population in 2016 was 654, an insignificant increase of 0.5% over the 651 recorded in 2011.