He was also president of the Cooma School of Arts, president of the Parents' and Citizens' Association, a justice of the peace, the local coroner, a director of the Monaro Grammar School,[1] a member of the local land board and Grand Master of the Independent Order of Oddfellows Manchester Unity.

[2][3][4] He was appointed to a casual vacancy for the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of Goulburn in November 1921 following the death of Nationalist MP William Millard.

[3][5] He resigned from the Legislative Assembly in January 1926 upon his winning Nationalist Party preselection to contest a federal by-election for the seat of Eden-Monaro.

Nevertheless, criticism of Australia's treatment of indigenous Australians in the British press led Lyons to drop him from Cabinet in 1934.

[7] Perkins spent the last ten years of his life researching the history of the Monaro region, with some of his records being donated to the State Library of New South Wales upon his death.