There is a broad dark margin on the caudal fin and a reddish-brown bar which runs from the upper jaw over the operculum, there is also a pale bar beneath its eye and a small black spot on the ventral margin of the base of the pectoral fin.

[1] In Australia its range is in the southern part of the continent where it occurs from Shark Bay in Western Australia, south to the southern coast of the continent, east to Tasmania and north to Fraser Island in Queensland.

[2] The silver drummer is occasionally recorded as solitary individuals but normally congregates in large schools, these may be mixed with other species dependent on location.

[4] The silver drummer is regarded as a fish which puts up a good fight when caught by the angler and is therefore popular.

[3] The silver drummer was first formally described as Pimelepterus sydneyanus in 1886 by the British-German ichthyologist and herpetologist Albert Günther (1830-1914) with the type locality given as Port Jackson, New South Wales.