Phillip Ibbotson was educated at the Perth Modern School, the University of Western Australia and Claremont Teachers College. He taught in both primary and secondary schools in Western Australia before moving to Canberra where he was Principal of the Technical External Studies College, Foundation Principal of Bruce TAFE College, and Associate Director of the Canberra Institute of Technology. He has published several works on training and teaching methodology.
His book of poetry, Ruin Ridge and Other Poems, was published while he was still in his teens, and although he has written poems occasionally since then he has never had them published. He wrote an operetta, 'Romance in Ruritania', for teenagers at Bunbury High Schoool; it was performed but not published.
