Botany Bay is an old favourite of Australians, it’s about the convict history and arriving in Botany Bay, NSW.
BOTANY BAY
Anonymous
Farewell to old England for ever,
Farewell to my rum culls as well,
Farewell to the well-known Old Bailey,
Where I used for to cut such a swell.
Chorus:
Singing, too-ral, li-ooral, li-addity,
Singing, too-ral, li-ooral, li-ay.
Singing, too-ral, li-ooral, li-addity,
Singing, too-ral, li-ooral, li-ay.
There’s a captain as is our commander,
There’s the bo’sun and all the ship’s crew,
There’s the first- and the second-class passengers,
Knows what we poor convicts goes through.
‘Tain’t leaving ol England we care about,
‘Tain’t cos we misspells wot we knows,
But because all we light-fingered gentry
Hops round with a log on our toes.
For fourteen long years I have ser-vi-ed,
And for fourteen long years and a day,
For meeting a bloke in the area,
And sneaking his ticker away.
Oh had I the wings of a turtle-dove,
I’d soar on my pinions so high,
Slap bang to the arms of my Polly love,
And in her sweet presence I’d die.
Now, all my young Dook-ies and Duch-ess-es,
Take warning from what I’ve to say –
Mind all is your own as you touch-ess-es,
Or you’ll meet us in Botany Bay.
