Botany Bay (1)

Trad

Farewell to your bricks and mortar
Farewell to your dirty lies
Farewell to your gangers and gang planks
And to hell with your overtime
For the good ship Ragamuffin
She’s lying at the quay
For to take oul Pat with a
shovel on his back
To the shores of Botany Bay

I’m on my way down to the quay
Where the ship at anchor lays
To command a gang of navvys
That they told me to engage
I thought I’d drop in for a drink
Before I went away
For to take a trip on an emigrant ship
To the shores of Botany Bay

The boss came up this morning
He says “Well, Pat you know
If you don’t get your navvys out
I’m afraid you’ll have to go”
So I asked him for my wages
And demanded all my pay
For I told him straight, I’m going to emigrate
To the shores of Botany Bay

And when I reach Australia
I’ll go and look for gold
There’s plenty there for the digging of
Or so I have been told
Or else I’ll go back to my trade
And a hundred bricks I’ll lay
Because I live for an eight hour shift
On the shores of Botany Bay

When Captain James Cook landed in Australia in 1770, he came to Botany Bay, which is south of Sydney. Later it became the place where many emigrants first set their foot on the new continent. See also The Shores Of Botany Bay.