Katrina Fanning grew up in Junee, quickly realising the challenges that could confront a young girl that was both passionate and talented in rugby league. Playing alongside the boys from the age of eight, by the time she turned 12 she had no available options to continue to play and turned her attentions to various other sports.
A move to Canberra after high school opened a door for her to reconnect with the game that she loved, linking with a local women’s Rugby League competition in 1995. Locally she would represent Queanbeyan, Gungahlin Bulls and the Boomanulla Raiders.
The opportunity to trial for the first officially recognised Australian Jillaroos team was too good to pass up. Fanning was selected, representing her country at prop forward in that inaugural Test match against New Zealand in July 1995. Through until 2004 she would play 26 Tests for the Jillaroos, touring New Zealand in 1997 and Fiji in 1998 and playing in World Cups in 2000 (England) and 2003 (New Zealand). She represented NSW through until 2006.
During her playing career, Fanning served as President of the Australian Women’s Rugby League and the Canberra Women’s Rugby League.
At the conclusion of her on-field career Fanning maintained significant involvement in Rugby League, as a director of the Canberra Raiders and as a member, and later Chair, of the Australian Rugby League Indigenous Council.
The region’s premier women’s competition, the Katrina Fanning Shield, is named in her honour.
She was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2020 for distinguished service to the Indigenous community through education and health initiatives, and to sport. She was further recognised as the 2020 ACT Australian of the Year.
Her standing in the game was underlined when she was inductee number 128 into the Rugby League Hall of Fame in 2024.