She played a significant role in the establishment of the colony and is recognised in the naming of many Australian landmarks including Mrs Macquarie's Chair and Elizabeth Street, Hobart.

She is said to have taken a particular interest in the welfare of women convicts and indigenous people as well as helping pioneer hay-making in the colony.

Elizabeth's Library of books on architecture were used by her husband and architect Francis Greenway in the planning of government buildings.

[1] At the end of her husband's term, she returned with him to Scotland in 1823, living at the Macquarie estate of Jarvisfield on the Isle of Mull.

She died at Gruline House on 11 March 1835, and was posthumously granted 2,000 acres (810 ha) of land in New South Wales.