G'day Treas,

Aha ... what you want is not 'Botany Bay' but 'The Shores of Botany Bay'. I would have the words and music on a MusicTime file ... at home! The song was first published in the Bush Music Club's 1950s - 1960s magazine 'Singabout' and is in my anthology 'Singabout - Reprints', Bush Music Club, 1985.

The verse (actually the chorus) that you quote is actually (at least, as originally sung by HPC 'Duke' Tritton in ~ 1962):

THE SHORES OF BOTANY BAY

CHORUS: Farewell to your bricks and mortar, farewell to your dirty lime,
Farewell to your gangway and gangplanks and farewell to your overtime.
The good ship Ragamuffin is a-lying at the quay
For to take old Pat, with a shovel on his back,
To the shores of Botany Bay.

VERSE 1: I'm on my way down to the quay, where a big ship now does lay,
To take a gang of navvies, I was ordered to engage.
I thought I might drop in for a drink, before I went away,
For to take a trip, on an immigrant ship,
To the shores of Botany Bay. CHORUS

VERSE 2: The boss came up this morning and he says, "Well, Pat, hello
If you do not mix that mortar fast, of course you'll have to go!"
Of course, he did insult me and I demanded all my pay
And I told him straight, I was goin' to emigrate,
To the shores of Botany Bay. CHORUS

VERSE 3 (added by 'Duke'):
And when I reach Australia, I'll go and search for gold,
There's plenty there for diggin' up, or so I have been told.
Or else I might go back to my trade, eight hundred bricks I'll lay,
In an 8-hour day, for an 8 bob pay,
On the shores of Botany Bay.

This third verse refers to the slogan of the Bricklayers' and masons' unions in the fight for shorter working hours, late last century: "8 hours work, 8 hours sleep, 8 hours play and 8 shillings pay".

A couple of extra verses have been added in recent years, but these are 'Duke' Tritton's original three, as I learnt them around 1964. I will look up the music file and repost the words (not my memory of them) and ABC/MIDI, next week.

Regards,

Bob Bolton