[2] Pedley was appointed the solo representative of the Royal Academy of Music for New South Wales.

[7] Pedley was a believer in the conservation of the Australian flora and fauna, and usually wrote from this perspective, singling out 'man' as disconnected from nature and the rest of the animals.

It is thought her writing was inspired by her visits to the property owned by her brother Arthur, near Walgett.

[8] Ethel's preface to Dot and the Kangaroo is as follows: To the children of Australia in the hope of enlisting their sympathies for the many beautiful, amiable, and frolicsome creatures of their fair land, whose extinction, through ruthless destruction, is being surely accomplished Stricken with cancer, Pedley died on 6 August 1898 at the Darlinghurst home of her companion Emmeline Woolley at the age of 39.

[8][2] Following her death, her brother established the Ethel Pedley memorial travelling scholarship for music students.