While creating temporarily named arrays would work in the simplest cases, creating such names becomes more complicated as the data structures become more detailed. You'd have to keep thinking of names of arrays just so you can forget them shortly thereafter.

my @skipper_with_name;
{
  my @skipper = qw(blue_shirt hat jacket preserver sunscreen);
  @skipper_with_name = ("The Skipper", \@skipper);
}

At this point, the second element of @skipper_with_name is a reference to the array formerly known as @skipper. However, the name is no longer relevant.

my $ref_to_skipper_provisions =
  [ qw(blue_shirt hat jacket preserver sunscreen) ];

The square brackets take the value within (evaluated in a list context); establish a new, anonymous array initialized to those values; and (here's the important part) return a reference to that array. It's as if you said:

my $ref_to_skipper_provisions;
{
  my @temporary_name =
  ( qw(blue_shirt hat jacket preserver sunscreen) );
  $ref_to_skipper_provisions = \@temporary_name;
}

Now you can use it to construct the larger list:

my $ref_to_skipper_provisions =
  [ qw(blue_shirt hat jacket preserver sunscreen) ];
my @skipper_with_name = ("The Skipper", $ref_to_skipper_provisions);

Of course, you didn't actually need that scalar temporary, either. You can put a scalar reference to an array as part of a larger list:

my @skipper_with_name = (
  "The Skipper",
  [ qw(blue_shirt hat jacket preserver sunscreen) ]
);

Now let's walk through this. You've declared @skipper_with_name, the first element of which is the Skipper's name string, and the second element is an array reference, obtained by placing the five provisions into an array and taking a reference to it. So @skipper_with_name is only two elements long, just as before.

So, in summary, the syntax:

my $fruits;
{
  my @secret_variable = ('pineapple', 'papaya', 'mango');
  $fruits = \@secret_variable;
}

can be simply replaced with:

my $fruits = ['pineapple', 'papaya', 'mango'];

sub get_provisions_list {
  return (
    ["The Skipper",
      [qw(blue_shirt hat jacket preserver sunscreen)]
    ],
    ["The Professor",
      [qw(sunscreen water_bottle slide_rule batteries radio)]
    ],
    ["Gilligan",
      [qw(red_shirt hat lucky_socks water_bottle)]
    ],
  );
}

my @all_with_names = get_provisions_list( );

Walking through this from the outside in, you have a return value of three elements. Each element is an array reference, pointing to an anonymous two-element array. The first element of each array is a name string, while the second element is a reference to an anonymous array of varying lengths naming the provisions—all without having to come up with temporary names for any of the intermediate layers.

To the caller of this subroutine, the return value is identical to the previous version. However, from a maintenance point of view, the reduced clutter of not having all the intermediate names saves screen and brain space.

You can show a reference to an empty anonymous hash using an empty anonymous array constructor. For example, if you add one "Mrs. Howell" to that fictional travel list, as someone who has packed rather light, you'd simply insert:

["Mrs. Howell",
  [  ]
],