[2] During her teens Elaine (in her own words) "fell off the rails", and she left high school at the age of 16 to go to the University of Adelaide to attend the Centre for Aboriginal Studies in Music.
The play toured regional Queensland, including Cairns, and did a season at the Playhouse in Brisbane in November 1999 followed by a run at the Sydney Opera House[2] in January 2000.
In 2003 she joined the tour to England to perform in the first Aboriginal-written play, The Cherry Pickers by Kevin Gilbert, with the Sydney Theatre Company.
After the birth of her second child she found herself feeling very depressed, and soon afterwards the couple split up during a family holiday, and Crombie returned to South Australia with her boys.
[12] Crombie starred in a touring production of Wesley Enoch's The 7 Stages of Grieving, directed by Shari Sebbens for the Sydney Theatre Company.
[14] It was staged in Sydney, Adelaide, and Canberra,[15] with a new epilogue that introduces a note of activism, with Crombie, Sebbens and assistant director Ian Michael calling for the audience to engage in "seven actions of healing".
[17] In February/March 2024, Crombie performed as Gindara in Baleen Moondjan, a work commissioned by the Adelaide Festival and created by former Bangarra Dance Theatre artistic director Stephen Page.