Bandy Perry was a horse-breaker in his youth. He was taken away as a child to the Moore River Native Settlement in Mogumber. When Perry was eighteen he left the settlement to work on a station nearby. He left that station to work at another one where he learnt more cattle skills until he got on a ship to Carnarvon. Perry worked as a butcher in Carnarvon for a man named Sonny Collins and later he did various other jobs around Carnarvon.