Son of attorney James John Borlase and his wife Catherine, Borlase emigrated to Australia where he is said to have been a lawyer in Victoria and a trooper in Victoria and possibly in other states. Lucy Sussex describes his career: he practised briefly as a solicitor in Melbourne ... but saw another side of the law entirely when he deserted his wife in January 1865... [and] an intercolonial police effort resulted in Borlase being arrested in Tasmania and ignominiously shipped back to Melbourne ... Borlase being 'required to find surety of twenty pounds for the support of his wife' [Argus 25 January 1865, Supplement, p.3.] .('Whodunit? : Literary Forensics and the Crime Writing of James Skipp Borlase and Mary Fortune' )
Borlase wrote prolifically for the Australian Journal in a variety of genres - romantic and historical serials as well as the better known stories of mystery and detection forming part of two well-known series, 'Memoirs of an Australian Police Officer' and 'Adventures of an Australian Mounted Trooper.' Some of these stories were included in his selected stories The Night Fossickers, which was reprinted many times with different titles designed to appeal to the London-based market for boys' adventure stories for which he also wrote. Borlase's exact position on the Australian Journal is not clear but he may have had some editorial powers. An old wages book for Clark Massina, covering the years 1865-1870, consulted by company historian Ronald G. Campbell, prompted the following comments: The best-paid man on the list was a Mr. Borlase, whose salary was four pounds four shillings a week - a high rate for that day - and as his daily working times were not stated, it is probable that he was a foreman or superintendent of some kind. He might possibly have been a timekeeper or clerk, but clerical work was not usually rated highly in the 'sixties. At all events, the fortunate Borlase drew more in actual salary than either of the then partners, who seemed to have averaged about four pounds a week each.' (The First Ninety Years: The Printing House of Massina, Melbourne, 1859 to 1949, p. 67)
