She completed a PhD in 1961 at the University of Glasgow, with her thesis "A Study of Central Australian Music",[4] published in book form in 1964.
[5] Ellis began her career researching Aboriginal music as assistant to Professor Ted Strehlow at the University of Adelaide from 1957 to 1958.
On returning to Adelaide in 1962 she resumed her research assistant position but soon won a Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Department of Australian Linguistics.
[7] Throughout her career she made field trips in South Australia and along the Murray River to study and record Aboriginal music.
[11] She received an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of New England in 1995 and was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities not long before her death.