Perrin, George Samuel (1849-1900)

Born in England on 28 November 1849 and died in Ballarat, Vic., on 24 December 1900.  

His parents migrated to Victoria in 1853 and young Perrin was educated in Melbourne.  In his younger days he travelled in tropical parts and accumulated a large collection of Aboriginal weapons, woods and other items.  In 1880 he became a forester with the Woods and Forests Department of South Australia and five years later Chief Forester at Wirrahara in the same State; from 1886 to 1887 he was Conservator of Forests in Tasmania and on 14 June 1888 was appointed Conservator of Forests in Victoria.  In the latter position he had to work hard to prevent undue encroachment by commercial speculators on timber reserves, but he succeeded in establishing a Government Forest Commission which gave him some measure of support.  Perrin was on friendly terms with Ferdinand Mueller and much of his knowledge of the Australian flora, acclimatization and forest conservation was attributed to the help he got from Mueller.