Rumley was driven by “ghastly weather” from her hometown in Melbourne and drawn by career. 

A lengthy CV, which includes titles such as founding director of the Geelong Art Gallery and curator of the new Parliament House Art Program and culminates in her appointment as a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) last year, traces a journey from the Victorian capital to her next stop — Mission Beach, Far North Queensland. 

There she plans on setting up a pop-up indigenous art gallery to open only during the short but busy tourist season. 

“I’m damned if I’m going to work full time,” she said. “I want to paint too.”

She is, however, characteristically frank in assessing her own work. 

“It’s shocking. I trained at art school in RMIT and the University of Melbourne, but I’ve only ever had time to do rotten, awful watercolours of flowers and trees.”

Her judgement is equally categorical for the artists with which she has worked while in Moree. Thankfully for them though, she is kinder in her appraisal. 

“The Sally Gabori given to us by [influential art patron] Ann Lewis is an extraordinary piece and the Anne Lewis collection  is probably what made us the biggest and best contemporary Aboriginal art collection in regional NSW, and probably a wider area than that.

“Sally Gabori is well over 90, that appeals to me. She started painting only 15 years ago but has painted up a storm since. She paints wild colours but everything has meaning. She started off painting the rocks around Bentinck Island where she was living. Then she got more and more abstract as she went on... though you can’t really say ‘abstract’ because everything she paints has a specific meeting.”

Rumley identifies the two paintings placed together — or diptych — as the work which most impacted her personally in her decade of service for the gallery. 

“If you see films of her, she  jabs at the canvas,” Rumley said. “Ann Lewis bought those two paintings in different places in Australia and put them together in her living room as a diptych. That to me is a picture speaking to you, because it’s profound, because it’s about Aboriginal culture and because of the fact that Gabori is so old and so dynamic.”

Rumley’s work with engaging the local Kamilaroi people is one of the achievements at Moree of which she is most proud. Annual attendance to the Moree Plains Gallery has doubled during her time as director, from roughly 10,000 visitors to more than 20,000. The outgoing director said a significant proportion of those have come from the local indigenous community. 

“Slowly but surely the Kamilaroi people have been coming in and understanding that this gallery is theirs as much as it is the broader community’s,” she said. 

Not only has the gallery’s relationship with the indigenous community boosted its attendances, it has significantly enriched the collection. 

Among its most striking works are two trees carved by the late Kamilaroi artist Lawrence Leslie, who spent a year as the gallery’s artist in residence in 2007. 

“Those carved trees are only found in this region of northern NSW, so they are really special,” said Rumley.

Another artist whose relationship with Rumley brought him to the gallery is Sydney-born James Kearns.

“I had an exhibition in Robertson and from that Katrina offered me a residency, which meant free accommodation and studio space. It was only meant to be two months, but Katrina was a legend and I stayed on as unofficial artist in residence for about eight months until I found my current studio.” 

“Kearnsy” is now one of Moree’s most prominent artists and is planning to enter a portrait of Rumley to this year’s Archibald. 

The outgoing director’s achievements are many, from attracting artists of the calibre of Kearns to raising over $1 million in grants, bringing the Archibald exhibition to town on two occasions and  creating the first public artworks in Moree.

But when Vivian Thompson begins her job next week one aspect in particular of Rumley’s legacy will help drive the new director’s efforts to continue the gallery’s growth. 

“It is a real shame that Katrina is leaving us,” Kearns said. “But she’s acquired an amazing collection over her time here which will be in the gallery forever and give future people, like Viv, a lot of ammo to go even further with.”