George Arthur Payne was a government surveyor and lightkeeper who lived in Adelaide, Kangaroo Island and Marino Rocks. Several of his poems are about lighthouses and about Kangaroo Island. On the launching of his book of poems in 1912, an article in The Advertiser 21 December 1912 said: 'Mr Payne, the author of this little book of verse, can claim descent from one of the pioneer familes of South Australia. He is the eldest grandson of Mr Samuel Payne, who was the original owner of many town acres in Adelaide. That gentleman not only laid out the suburb of Payneham, but he built the Exchange Hotel in Hindley Street...'
