Are there instructions anywhere on how to do this? I could have sworn Perl, absent some other scripting language, was an absolute requirement. If it is possible I will have another go.

From the Makefile (which is exceedingly well commented):

# Define NO_PERL if you do not want Perl scripts or libraries at all. #

I don't know what functionality you lose that way, and you might very well still require it to build it (don't know, not tried), but the core functionality should all work.