After leaving Harvard, Newbery studied at the Royal School of Mines, Jermyn Street, London, and in 1865 was appointed analyst to the Geological Survey of Victoria—an appointment which he held until 1868, when the department was abolished. In 1870 he was appointed to Superintendent of the Melbourne Industrial and Technological Museum and Analyst to the Department of Mines; he additionally assumed the role of Instructor in Chemistry and Metallurgy at the Museum Laboratory. Newbery was a member of the Royal Society of Victoria and was Honorary Superintendent of Juries and Awards at the Melbourne International Exhibition (1880). He married, in 1870, Catherine Maud Florence, daughter of George Hodgkinson. In 1881 he was created C.M.G.