As the only child of nomadic parents, Adèle Kipping found creative writing always a sure companion. She spent some years in the UK, but most of her education was in Sydney, around the Belleview Hill area. Her father was an architect, and she moved from school to school, learning to be adaptable, as he moved with his work. Kipping attended Sydney Girls' High School, and, as she says, 'gathered tertiary studies in Reading, England, including music and art, before yielding to writing full-time'. She taught art and painted for exhibitions, and sang in concerts and on radio. Kipping settled in Brisbane, and married in the 1930s. Her first child, a son, died at birth. Kipping lived at different times in Canada, Ireland, Scotland, Norway and stayed with the South Australian poet Jan Owen in Rome. She recorded her travels in poetry and illustration.

When Kipping's daughter Cathrine Adaire and her daughter's husband were transferred to Adelaide in the early 1970s, Kipping and her husband moved to Adelaide, but not long afterwards her husband was hospitalised, spending the rest of his life in special care. Kipping continued to live in the Adelaide Hills until about 1999 when she moved to Sydney to live near her eldest daughter, Lynnette.

In December 1993 Kipping was devastated by the murder of her second daughter, Cathrine, and soon afterwards the death of her third daughter, Leone, in a fall in the Blue Mountains. She chose not to publish poems she wrote at this tragic time, although she wrote much that she stockpiled with other works for a future book of poetry.

As well as writing herself, Kipping did much to encourage and support young writers. The Spring Poetry Festival which she established and organised for many years, held in the Adelaide Hills annually since 1990, brings poets from near and far. She was a member of the Australian Society of Authors, the FAW, the SA Writers' Centre, Friendly Street, the Country and City Women Writers' Association and the Kensington Park Writers, and was previously President of the SA Poets' Union and of the English Association. Kipping's poetry has been published in Canada, the USA, the UK and NZ, and in braille and she read regularly on the radio. She also wrote short stories and poems for children. The Bridge Factor (science fiction) was one of many read on 5UV.