but a "purler" is an catastrophic happening

Ah, then Mr Commando of the Rhubarb variety, we have a different variation on that in 'strine. According to 'strine slang dictionary located at http://www.outbacktravelshop.com.au/tools/slang.htm#p :
Perler - used when something is really great, as in "Anyone who can write code in perl is an absolute perler." Ha ha...

Just another bewdiful example of the variations in our strange language!

Hev