Elizabeth moved to Australia in 1937, and was educated at
Methodist Ladies' College in Melbourne where, in her final year, she topped the state of Victoria in Greek and Roman History. At
Melbourne University, she majored in English and History, gaining a BA in 1953. She later received her PhD there in 1982. Wood-Ellem earned her living as a book editor and indexer, initially at Angus & Robertson in Sydney, then London (1960–72) with Macmillan and Paul Hamlyn. She later worked freelance. She was appointed an archivist at
King's College,
Cambridge University, to sort and catalogue the papers of British novelist
E. M. Forster after his death in 1970.
Churchill College, Cambridge then engaged her as Assistant Librarian for Archives to catalogue Sir
James Grigg's papers and
A.V. Alexander's correspondence. She completed a PhD in Tongan history in 1982 at the
University of Melbourne and remained a Senior Fellow there at the time of her death. She published her biography of Queen Sālote of Tonga in 1999.
Fairfax’s Pacific correspondent Mike Field said of it was "one of the finest pieces of historical research and insight, anthropology and understanding of Tonga that you’ll ever find." Notable books she edited include
The Songs and Poems of Queen Sālote (2004) and
Tonga and the Tongans: Heritage and Identity (2007). In 2008,
King George Tupou V recognised her singular contribution to Tonga by bestowing on her the title of Commander of the
Order of the Crown of Tonga. ==Publications==