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Robert David FitzGerald (1830-1892), surveyor and naturalist, was born on 30 November 1830 at Tralee, County Kerry, Ireland. He arrived in Sydney in 1856 and was appointed to the Department of Lands as a draftsman in August. In 1873 he became deputy surveyor general, in 1874-82 he was also the chief mining surveyor and for some years controller of the Church and School Lands. In 1888-92 he served on the Public Service Commission. FitzGerald was an ornithologist, taxidermist and from 1856, an enthusiast for Australian natural history. On field trips he collected botanical specimens from Wallis Lake, north of Newcastle in 1864 and between 1869 and 1876. In 1874 he was elected a fellow of the Linnean Society of London and in 1876 a member of the Royal Society of New South Wales.