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laid out North Rockhampton, giving the name ‘Kalka’ to a portion of it. The meaning of the word in India is
‘village’.
Although it is possible that after leaving Rockhampton in 1870 Permien as an ‘eccentric explorer’ travelled
to various parts of the world seeking to place monuments at the mid point of each continent, this is not verified.
He appears again in early 1874 on a schooner Twins, sailing from Koepang, Timor, to Port Darwin in the Northern
Territory with an Arab servant, Abdoolah, who worked eventually with Dillon Cox. His visit to the Territory was
‘in quest of the opening up of the land of Carpentaria’ and perhaps the finding of the mid point of Australia.
‘Permain’, as recorded in the Northern Territory Times and Gazette, brought with him buffaloes, 14 sheep
and coconuts. Living with Robert Caldwell, an importer of stock, in his Palmerston store, Permien tried to find
a companion for his proposed expedition. In early 1874 Villeneuve Smith, a barrister, provided a reference to
the Government Resident, G B Scott, about an Edward Borradaile, aged 29, who had worked on the Launceston
and Western Railway as an engineer and draftsman and who had come north for a position. He was persuaded to
accompany Permien on his proposed journey to Port Essington and beyond.
They set out in June 1874 with five horses, intending to be away for two months. Government officials had
warned the men about insufficient supplies. By October 1874, four months on, some concern was expressed and a
contact by a schooner to Port Essington was made that month with no word of the explorers. In December 1874,
the Northern Territory Times and Gazette was expressing concern about an old and eccentric explorer and his
young companion and that there had been no search instigated. Finally, John Lewis set out in January 1875 and
the Government Resident contacted Borradaile’s father in England. The Wet Season, however, was too advanced
for much progress to be made.
Filtering back from Aborigines at Port Essington in March 1875 was the story of Alligator River Aborigines
killing the two white men, who had reached Tor Rock. Gilbert McMinn and Inspector Paul Foelsche set out in
March in Flying Cloud to clear up the mystery. Searching with ponies, they reached Tor Rock but encountered
hostile Aborigines and found no evidence that the explorers had reached the site. The South Australian government
to Borradaile’s family in England and Australia conveyed the result of the searches. His brother eventually
erected suitable memorials in Christ Church of England, Darwin, in 1904. Surveyor General George Goyder,
after representations from a Mr Sawtell, named Mount Permain and Mount Borradaile in the Tor Rock area after
the explorers. The Royal Geographical Society in London supported this and the location of the mountains was
recorded in the Stanford maps of Australia in the United Kingdom in 1879.
The sad events of 1874 in the early formative years of the Territory’s development provided a lesson to later
explorers to be well provided for in their journeys and be wary of Aborigines. The early nomenclature of South
Australia’s Northern Territory had been ascribed two new features, Mount Permain and Mount Borradaile, which
should, of course, have been Mounts Permien and Borradaile. Permien’s descendants are still seeking further
information about him.
P G Spillett, ‘Mounts Permain and Borrodaile’, in Northern Perspective, vol 5, No 2, 1982; G W Goyder, ‘Naming of Mts Permain and
Borrodaile’, 1875; correspondence with S Edwards, N Permain, B Kitson and E M Radcliffe.
V T O’BRIEN, Vol 2.PERRIMAN, (HARRY) LESLIE (1883–1987), engineer and missionary, was born at Dunedin, New Zealand,
on 6 September 1883, the eldest son of Henry and Mary Ann Perriman. When he was three years old, the family
moved to Victoria, living for a short time at South Melbourne and then at Essendon. He was educated at the State
School in Essendon until he reached the age of 14 years, when he became an apprentice to an engineering firm.
After his six years’ apprenticeship, he became Foreman of J Clarke’s engineering workshop in Melbourne, a
position he held until his acceptance as a Church Missionary Society (CMS) missionary in 1919.
Perriman was unable to start his work in north Australia in 1919 as he contracted Mediterranean influenza that
swept through Australia after the First World War. After two years’ convalescence he was fit enough to travel north.
In 1921, he accompanied a comparatively large missionary party that the CMS sent to erect the new mission on
Groote Eylandt. Among these was Norman B Tindale, a 20-year-old scientist from the Adelaide Museum, who had
permission to go to Groote not as a missionary but to study the Aboriginal people and their culture. The arrival of
the new mission party at Roper River was a very sad affair. The influenza epidemic had struck down many of those
at Roper, including Josephine Warren, who died just before the party arrived.
Perriman was one of the first missionaries to work for any length of time at the new mission on Groote.
Hubert Warren started the mission at the Emerald River on 1 August 1921 and in October that year, Perriman and
Dyer were placed in charge. Perriman worked there until November 1923. Earlier that year the tiny mission had
been completely destroyed by a flood and the missionaries had the task of building a new one several kilometres
upstream above flood level. This was the site of the Emerald River Mission until its transfer to Angurugu in
1943.
Soon after his return from furlough, 35 part Aboriginal children were brought over from the Roper River.
The girls were under the immediate care of Misses Cross and Dove, who were given instructions to make the
work as self-supporting as possible. Emphasis was placed on gardening, logging, carpentry and domestic science
as well as formal lessons.
About this time, Perriman began to be tormented by a conflict of loyalties that remained with him for several
years. He was a bachelor and his mother was a widow who always turned to him for help. At the same time, he
felt called by God to work among the Aboriginal people, but he did not find mission work easy. He had a number
of problems with discipline in connection with the older part Aboriginal girls and over reacted against them on