Horrible Histories - Australia Song Lyrics
In Britain's Georgian timesThere were so many crimesNo time to hang each crook guilty of a felonyCos there's no room to jail youThey'd send you to AustraliaTo live in our new-fangled penal colonyThink that sounds like heaven?In 1787, it wasn't that kind of once in a lifetime tripFirst fleet took the journeyMonths at sea so churnyOver 40 died while they were on the shipThose that lived were pluckyPlucky, plucky, pluckyCrammed on board with rats and vermin, *****roaches in bedStench inside was sickyYucky, yucky, ickyLice not very nice, can't get them out of my headLanded Bay of BotanyConvicts' life was rottenyNeeded food and shelter but everything failedThrees too strong for fellingStagnant water smellingA real step back in time in New South WalesSoil too poor for buddingHuts washed up by floodingPlans for building houses came to sticky endsThe best of all their laboursAttacked by local nativesAnd that is when your neighbours don't become good friendsSituation trickyTricky, tricky, trickyThen a second fleet of ships was due agroundSome thought this was luckyBut illness had struckyHalf were dead or I'llFever was spinning aroundAfter seven yearsConvict record clearsJust one catchYou got to pay your own way backNo wages meant no moneyNo choice, but what's funnyMany stayed, became farmers and made a stackOriginal arriversProved hardy survivorsSydney turned into a place you'd choose to goThink that they'd be fairerTo convicts who were sent there?No way they built prisons even more remotePort Arthur was one of the jailsWhere every escape attempt failsWas one man who nearly got throughBilly Hunt dressed as a kangarooInmate's life still suckySucky, sucky, suckyLife behind bars was not very niceHideous and messyWho would ever guessyThis hellhole would become aHoliday paradise?
