In 1948 he began to study law at the University of Melbourne, but abandoned his course in the following year when he obtained a cadetship with The Age.
Returning to Australia as a feature writer, he shared the Walkley Award for journalism in 1959 for an article on pioneering heart surgery.
In 1972 The Age, which had traditionally supported Coalition governments, advocated the election of Gough Whitlam's Australian Labor Party.
A compromise, supported by the managing director Ranald Macdonald, narrowly averted Perkin's resignation.
It also reinforced his insistence on editorial independence, subject to the management's right to dismiss an editor in whom it had lost confidence.
His reforms and his willingness to speak out strongly in defence of the paper's policies boosted circulation from a stagnant 180,000 in 1965 to a solid 222,000 ten years later.