AustLit

The second child of Dr George Ayliffe and his wife Elizabeth, she came to Australia in the Pestonjee Bomanjee with her parents in 1838, at the age of two years. They landed at Glenelg and were carried ashore by the sailors. They pitched their tent next to that of fellow traveller Governor Gawler, where the Glenelg Town Hall later stood. The Ayliffe family settled on a sheeprun which extended "from the Mountain Hut to Marino". They had brought out with them a wooden house ready to erect.

Ettie was educated and trained to be a teacher by Mr T Ainsley Caterer. When she was about forty she married Joseph Adolphus Bode, Gentleman, of Gunningdale Park, Strathalbyn, and they had a daughter.

Ettie contributed a number of short stories, poems and articles to papers in Adelaide and Melbourne. One of her works was included in the Australian Ladies' Annual of 1878 and a poem in Sladen's Australian Poets 1788-1888. After her husband's death in about 1900 she went to live at Glenelg. In 1908 she underwent an operation for appendicitis, and from then until her death some twelve years later she suffered periods of great weakness and pain.