Botany Bay
{loadposition BotanyBay}
Chorus:
Farewell to your bricks and mortar
Farewell to your dirty lime
Farewell to your gangway and to your gang plank
To heck with your overtime
For the good ship Ragamuffin
Is lying at the quay
For to take old Pat with a shovel on his back
To the shores of Botany Bay
I went down to the harbor, where the big ship at anchor lays
To command a gang of navvys
I was told to engage I stopped for a bit to take a bite before I went away
For to take a trip on an emigrant ship
To the shores of Botany Bay –
Chorus
The boss came up this morning
He says “Well, Pat you know,
If you didn’t get your navvys out
I’m afraid you’ll have to go”
So I asked him for my wages I demanded all my pay
And I told him straight I was going to emigrate
To the shores of Botany Bay –
Chorus
And when I reach Australia I’ll go and I’ll look for gold
There’s plenty there for digging up
Or so I have been told
Or else I’ll go back to my trade
Eight hundred bricks I’ll lay
And eight bob I’ll lift for an eight-hour shift
On the shores of Botany Bay –
Chorus
Note — a navvy , (rhymes with savvy), is British slang for a construction laborer;
a quay, (pronounced kay) is a docking place for a ship;
Botany Bay is a harbor in Australia;
a bob is slang for a British Shilling, worth about 10 cents.
Botany Bay: public domain. ref: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9N-Aj3aTL6o