"Ten Thousand Miles Away" (Roud 1778) is a sea shanty and bush ballad whose writing and composition are attributed to J. B.
In his Shanties from the Seven Seas Hugill says that this was originally a shore ballad sung by street singers in Ireland in the early nineteenth century.
[3] This is Joseph Bryan Geoghegan (c. 1816 – 1889) who was manager of the Star and Museum Music Hall in Bolton, Lancashire[4] The song is numbered 1778 in the Roud Folk Song Index and it has been passed from singer to singer as a traditional shanty.
[5] The theme song from Australian 1974 hit television series, Rush, written by George Dreyfuss and arranged by Brian May has some concurrence with the traditional folk tune.
The song was also arranged for a solo melodica and used in the television series SpongeBob SquarePants under the title “Botany Bay”[6] after one variant of the lyrics that mentions Botany Bay extensively.