The youngest of eight children, Phil Cummings was born at Port Broughton but grew up at Peterborough in the mid-north of South Australia, where his brothers worked on the railways. He worked as a junior primary school teacher but resigned in 2001 to retire to his home at One Tree Hill, South Australia, and concentrate on his writing.
Cummings has been ambassador to the Premier’s Reading Challenge in South Australia, South Australia’s National Literacy and Numeracy Champion, and State Ambassador for the 2012 National Year of Reading. He was awarded the Carclew Fellowship at the Adelaide Festival of Arts in 1998. His works are regularly selected as notable books in the Children's Book Council Book of the Year Awards.