Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(Aus.) wealthy, upper-class.

1863		Maryborough Chron. (Qld) 20 Aug. 1/2: [He] retorted upon his assailants by designating them as members of the ‘silver-tailed’ or would-be aristocratic mob, to whom the arrival of the Boomerang was fraught with commercial death or life.
1890		A.J. Vogan Black Police 116: Members of those upper circles who belong to the genus termed in Australia parlance ‘silver-tailed’.
1895		Truth (Sydney) 31 Mar. 1/6: The machinations of a ‘silver-tail’ relative who may be ambitious of securing the superior section for himself.
1902		Bulletin (Sydney) 16 Aug. 25/1: Then one month’s confinement to the ‘Silvertail’ man, who is generally hypersensitive, equals six months to the ordinary criminal who, even if he is a ‘first-timer’ here has probably been ‘in’ somewhere else.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 24 Jan. 10/4: The pompous [...] imposter [who] proceeds forthwith to ram ‘art’ down the delicate throats of the silvertail patrons.
1924		E.G. Murphy ‘What Next?’ Dryblower’s Verses 66: With the latest craze in clothes The bustle waddled in. It showed itself upon the block, Where Percies promenade, And did its worst to try and shock The silvertail brigade.
1961		T. Ronan Only a Short Walk 3: Some sort of pub or lodgin’ house – not a silvertail joint.
1998		P. Doyle (con. late 1950s) Amaze Your Friends (2019) 102: ‘I did more to keep the Japs off George Street than you and your silvertail mates ever dreamed of’.
2003		Bug (Aus.) Sept. 🌐 So [...] it was bit of a disappointment that my dining companion had chosen a bistro in a silvertail suburb.
2006		R. Hughes Things I Didn’t Know (2007) 187: A well-to-do accountant who lived in the ‘silvertail’ suburb of Vaucluse.