Phillip Moses can trace the family heritage on his mother's side to Edward Merrick of the Second Fleet. His father's family came to Australia in the 1880s from what was then Assyria (now Lebanon). Moses started his schooling in Papua New Guinea, but atttended schools in New South Wales, Queensland, New Zealand, Tasmania and Victoria before completing an Arts degree at the University of New South Wales. He attended the Australian Defence Force Academy in the mid-1980s and served as a major in the Australian Army Reserve.
