Philip Denny Day was born in Brisbane, Australia and graduated in law from the University of Queensland in 1953. He has studied town and country planning at Sydney University under Denis Winston, as well as been an active member of NSW Department of Local Government, and the Department of Decentralization and Development, where he eventually became Director. Editor and main author of the NSW department's landmark Report on Selective Decentralization, The Regional Organization Report, and the NSW supplement to the Commonwealth/State Officials Committee Report on Decentralization, he joined the University of Queensland Department of Regional and Town Planning in 1974. Contemporaneously with numerous media and journal articles, he is the author of Planning and Development: The Philosophy and Practice of Development Contributions as well as Land: The Elusive Quest for Social Justice, Taxation Reform and a Sustainable Planetary Environment.