The narrator, Jim Jones, is found guilty of poaching and sentenced to transportation to the penal colony of New South Wales.
When the narrator remarks that he would rather have joined the pirates or indeed drowned at sea than gone to Botany Bay, Jones is reminded by his captors that any mischief will be met with the whip.
According to folklorist A. L. Lloyd, "Jim Jones at Botany Bay" may have been lost to history had McAlister not included it in his book.
But take a tip before you ship to join the iron gang, Don't get too gay in Botany Bay, or else you'll surely hang.
Day and night in irons clad we like poor galley slaves Will toil and toil our lives away to fill dishonored graves But by and by I'll slip m' chains and to the bush I'll go And I'll join the brave bushrangers there, Jack Donahue and Co. And some dark night all is right and quiet in the town, I'll get the bastards one and all, I'll gun the floggers down.