 Working steadily until 1868 FitzGerald was then promoted to control the roads branch of that department.By 1873 he had become Deputy Surveyor General, and by 1874 he had been given responsibility as the Chief Mining Surveyor as well as controller of Church and School Lands for New South Wales.Following the advent of the Crown Lands Act of 1884 part of his duty was to analyse and consider the future roles of his department and ironically that analysis resulted in a number of retrenchments including his own.