Newbury won the Hugh Ramsay prize for portrait-painting in 1913 – his two pictures being placed first and second.
Newbury held a joint exhibition in 1917 with Richard McCann, and gradually established a reputation for the simplicity and spaciousness of his work. Most of his paintings were landscapes, but he also did some very good portraits.
However, Newbury became ill soon afterwards and died at Eltham near Melbourne on 1 April 1941. Newbury married Ruth Trumble who survived him with one son.
His work is represented in the galleries at Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Ballarat, Geelong, and at Canberra.