The townsite was gazetted in 1925 and honours Sir Francis Newdegate, the Governor of Western Australia from 1920 to 1924.

Newdegate is situated in the heart of the south-eastern wheatbelt of Western Australia – about halfway between Perth in the west and Esperance in the south-east.

Newdegate is central to the Western Mallee subregion of the Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia.

The Wagin to Newdegate railway line was completed in 1926, thereby connecting the town to the Western Australian rail network.

[3] In 1932 the Wheat Pool of Western Australia announced that the town would have two grain elevators, each fitted with an engine, installed at the railway siding.