151. Botany Bay (Henry Stephens and William Yardley)

Ironically, my first exposure to this popular "Australian" ballad is hearing it sung by American folksinger, Burl Ives, on one of my parents' 78 records. It was probably one of the first songs I ever learnt.

It is not really an authentic Australian ballad as it was written in England by Henry Pottinger Stephens and William Yardley for the burlesque comedy, "Little Jack Shephard" (London, 1885; Melbourne, 1886). It was first published in Australia in the Sydney Golden Songster in 1893. Since then it has become a standard part of the Ausralian folk tradition.

Thanks to gdgest for the above information.

You can see a playlist of my Australian songs here: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=0DE11C284435E7A2

For lyrics and chords of my songs, please see my website: http://www.raymondcrooke.com

Category:

Music

Tags:

• folk
• song
• australia
• convict
• transportation
• jim
• jones
• ballad

[LitanyofFaith]

truely aussie such an inspiring and patriotic song

[raymondcrooke]

It's a good song, but it apparently had its origins in the British Music Hall.

[harry1987]

You're a hero. Also 815

[raymondcrooke]

Thanks for subscribing.

[jfsmith881]

i live on botany bay jus down the road from where capt cook landed,

[tamsta32]

this is a nice song for our project

[raymondcrooke]

@dialinpuree I'm sure you've got better guitars than that one. But you can have it if you want.

[dialinpuree]

@raymondcrooke really? give it back to me then. I'll use it!

[fjenn]

Lovely rendition of botany bay, I'm from Ireland and hope to visit botany bay in sydney next christmas

[raymondcrooke]

That old guitar was untunable, lookinwell. I don't use it any more.

[1537ohno]

haha, there may have been. I never asked :)

[raymondcrooke]

And was there a reason you were chosen for that part?