Phillips collected language examples from Aboriginal people around Cooktown, which were presented in an 1898 meeting of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (and later published). Phillips' paper included language examples collected by James Cook, George Forster and Phillip Parker King from their times around Cooktown in the late 1700s and early 1800s. During the 1870s, Phillips published work on Buddha and Buddhism and collections of poems.
