Botany Bay Harmonica Tabs

A Prelude to the song – Botany Bay

Well, now it’s time to journey around Australia
through the myriad of folk songs that began way
back in the overcrowded prisons of London in the late 1700s.

Mother England was under pressure, for the population in London had
grown too large to sustain itself, many ordinary citizens were forced
to turn to crime to support themselves and feed their families.

These “criminals” were to become convicts, people
in exile, banished from their native shores and transported to the
Great Southern Land.

Their reward for years of hard labour would be the hope of freedom and
when the First Fleet sailed into Botany Bay – Sydney on the 26th of
January 1788.

Many knew of this hope!

Play to Waltz Time.

Verse 1

4 -4 5 6 6 -4 -5 -5 5 4
Fare-are-well to Old Eng-land for-ev-er
6 5 6 7 -5 -6 7 6
Fare-well to my old pals as well
-6 -7 7 -7 7 -8 7 -6 6 5 4
Fare-are-well to the well known Old Ba-il-ey
4 -4 5 6 6 -4 -5 5 4
Where I once used to look such a swell!

Chorus

6 -5 5 6 6 -4 -5 -5 5 -4 4
Sing-ing too ra la oo ra lie ad-dit-y
6 -5 5 6 7 -5 -6 7 6
Sing-ing too ra la oo ra lie ay
-6 -7 7 -7 7 -8 7 -6 6 5 4
Sing-ing too ra la oo ra lie ad-dit-y
4 -4 5 6 6 -4 -5 5 4
We’re bou-nd for Bot-an-y Bay!

Verse 2

There’s the Captain and he’s our commander
There’s the boson and all the ship’s crew
There’s the first and the second class passengers
Who knows what we poor convicts go through?

Verse 3

Taint leaving old England we cares about
Taint cos we mis-spells what we knows
But because all we light-fingered gentry
Hops around with a log on our toes!

Verse 4

Now all my young Dookies and Dutchesses
Take warning from what I’ve to say
Mind all is your own that you touchesses
Or you’ll find us in Botany Bay!

Chorus twice to end