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"Botany Bay" is a song that can be traced back to the musical burlesque, Little Jack Sheppard, staged at The Gaiety Theatre, London, England, in 1885 and in Melbourne, Australia, in 1886. The show was written by Henry Pottinger Stephens and William Yardley, with music composed and arranged by Wilhelm Meyer Lutz. The show's programme credits "Botany Bay" as "Old Air arr. Lutz", and the more recent crediting of the music for "Botany Bay" to Florian Pascal, is totally spurious. Florian Pascal was the pseudonym of Joseph Williams, Jr. (1847–1923), a music publisher and composer who published the show's music. Pascal composed other numbers in the score but received no credit for "Botany Bay".
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Earlier history
The song's earlier history is less clear. A song "Botany Bay", catalogued by the British Library as from the 1780s and described as "sung by the Anacreontic Society", has no obvious connection, being concerned with Cook's landing rather than the subsequent deportation of convicts. However, the song's verses have lines in common with Farewell to Judges and Juries which had been performed in 1820. As for the melody, The Era (London) of 25 October 1890 describes it as "written over a hundred years ago", and it appears to have been adapted from the folk song "Mush, Mush", with its refrain "Mush, mush, mush, turaliaddy! Sing, mush, mush, mush, turalia!".
Botany Bay was the designated settlement for the first fleet when it arrived in Australia in the eighteenth century. It was a settlement intended for the transport of convicts to Australia. The song describes the period in the late 18th and 19th centuries, when British convicts were deported to the various Australian penal colonies by the British government for seven-year terms as an alternative to incarceration in Britain. The second verse is about life on the convict ships, and the last verse is directed to English girls and boys as warning not to steal.
After the production of Little Jack Sheppard, the song became a popular folk song and has been sung and recorded by Burl Ives and many others. It is played as a children's song on compilations, particularly in Australia.
The song is referenced in various documentaries researching the transport of convicts to Australia, although that practice in New South Wales had ended in 1840, 45 years before the song was written.
Lyrics
There are no "official" lyrics to "Botany Bay" and slight variations can be found in different sources and by different performers.
Covers
The song "Toorali", on the 2008 album Summerland from Australian band The Herd uses an adapted excerpt from the song "Botany Bay" for its chorus and main verse.
The Australian band Bush Gothic (headed by Jenny M Thomas) recorded a version on their 2015 CD "The Natural Selection Australian Songbook".
A verse and chorus of the song can also be heard sung by Deborah Kerr, Robert Mitchum, Peter Ustinov, and Glynis Johns in the 1960 film The Sundowners.
Kate Rusby covered the song for her 1999 album Sleepless
One of the most well known versions internationally is the version of Australian singer Mirusia with Dutch violinist André Rieu which appeared on their album Waltzing Matilda in 2008.