Keith migrated with his family from England to Australia in 1949 and grew up on the south coast of New South Wales. After leaving high school he trained as a teacher at the Australian School of Pacific Administration (ASOPA), arriving in the then Territory of Papua and New Guinea in 1963 at age 18.

He launched the PNG Attitude blog in 2006 to enable Australians and Papua New Guineans to engage in public discussion on political, social, economic and literary matters. The blog has spun off the Crocodile Prize literary awards, Pukpuk Publications, McKinnon-Paga Hill Fellowships for writers and the Walk to Equality project, publisher of the first collection of writing by PNG women. All are not-for-profit enterprises.