Botany Bay contains Lang's most significant Australian work and was first published in 1853. It includes a number of short stories set in the early years of settlement. These are:

• The Ghost Upon the Rail
• The Master and His Man
• Giles! As I Live!
• Tracks in the Bush
• Captain Ketchcalfe
• Barrington
• Three Celebrities
• Baron Wald
• Sir Henry Hayes
• Kate Crawford
• Annie Saint Felix
• A Ramble with the Blacks
• Music A Terror

John Lang (1816-1864) was born in Parramatta but studied Law in England 1837-1841 and from 1843 to 1845 practised as a lawyer in India. In India also he became editor of an English-language newspaper.From 1853 to 1859 Lang lived in England and Europe becoming a popular literary figure. He returned to India where he died in 1864.