From Rural Victoria to Hollywood: Percy Leason's Oz Legacy Celebrated in Kaniva

Kaniva unveiled a heritage trail honoring local artist Percy Leason, whose 1939 Wizard of Oz picture book helped promote the film.

Kaniva, Victoria, marked the debut of the Wiregrass Heritage Trail, a 45-minute walking route that displays 43 new artworks based on Percy Leason’s early 20th-century cartoons. Leason, born on a wheat farm near Lillimur in 1889, rose to prominence as Australia’s leading illustrator before moving to the United States in 1937 with his family. Struggling financially, he accepted an offer from MGM to illustrate a children’s picture book promoting the upcoming Wizard of Oz film, a job that eventually funded his family’s relocation to New York.

Beyond the Oz commission, Leason gained fame for a winning beer-advertising poster for Carlton and United Brewery in 1907, an image that remained iconic in Australian pubs for decades. The heritage trail was inspired by a conversation between local tourism worker Helen Hobbs and Leason’s grandson Mike Fenton, who visited to explore his ancestry. Artist Sharon Marrett recreated Leason’s original sketches, linking the town’s history to his national legacy. Leason died in Staten Island in 1959, and his daughter Nancy Fenton, now 103, recalls his longing for home.