Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(Aus.) a rumour.

[1874		‘English Sl.’ in Eve. Telegram (NY) 9 Dec. 1/5: Let us present a few specimens:– [...] ‘Where’s Tom Collins?’].
1894		Inquirer & Commercial News (Perth) 1 June 15/4: There is such comicality attached to the yarn that is told about this individual that it is worth repeating. A friend would on meeting another say, Hallo, old fellow, have you heard what ‘Tom Collins’ has been saying about you, and would repeat some diabolical imaginary accusation alleged to have been hurled at him by ‘T. C.’ By the great Jeoshaphat, who is ‘Tom Collins,’ where is this darned skunk to be seen - let me get at him, and I will soon settle his hash for him, would the accused party scowlingly utter; oh, his friend would reply, ‘you will find him at such a place,’ mentioning some well-known Hostelry, the occupants of which had been put up to the joke and would pass the aggrieved one still further on by saying, oh yes, ‘Tom Collins’ has just left 5 minutes ago - and so the joke would go on, day after day a fresh victim being made, until half of Sydney were rushing wildly about seeking this notorious scandal, mischief-making ‘Tom Collins,’ who was after all only a myth.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 87: Tom Collins, a fellow about town whom many sought to kill for touching them on‘sore points’; he was said to frequent the hotels; he always managed to vanish before bit destroyers, at he was imaginary.
1945		Baker Aus. Lang. 75: Among these terms [for rumour or gossip] are bush wire, [...] Tom Collins, and, probably best known of all furphy.
1972		B. Wannan Folklore of the Aus. Pub 130: Tom Collins: ‘I got it from Tom Collins’, a popular saying in Melbourne pubs in the 1890s, referred to a mythical spreader of lies, rumours and slander.