Vivienne Nicholson moved with her family from Windsor, New South Wales to Melbourne in 1948. She was educated at Burwood State School and Canterbury Girls' High School. She was employed as a secretary before and for a period after her marriage to John Nicholson in 1973. They had two children. She lived in the Frankston- Mornington region from 1973 until her move in 2003 to Toora North in South Gippsland. As a mature aged student she completed her tertiary education at Monash University with a Bachelor of Economics, and Masters Degree in Australian Studies.

In the 1990s she became involved in an unsuccessful community campaign to prevent a shopping centre development in Mornington. She was a member of the Save Mornington Alliance (SMA). This activism lead her to stand for the Victorian Parliament at the 1999 election.

In 2009 she completed a Ph D at the University of Melbourne on the role of the SMA in the attempt to prevent the building of the shopping centre.