The 1838 slaughter began when about 22 mounted NSW police were tasked with punishing local Kamilaroi people for a series of attacks on local stockmen.

After leaving what is now Manilla, the troopers pursued a large group of Kamilaroi people for three weeks over scores of kilometres.

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On January 26 - now Australia day - they caught them, on the banks of the Waterloo Creek. It was the 50th anniversary of the landing of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove. The troopers gunned down every Aboriginal person they found.

Estimates range from 40 fatalities, to about 200.

For the last 183 years, the site has been a travelling stock route, without as much as a sign - and no legal protection for the relatively isolated heritage location, surrounded by agricultural development.

That is all set to change, thanks to a decade-long campaign by three Local Aboriginal Land Councils, heritage workers and local Indigenous people.

A site at Jews Lagoon, 3837 Millie Road, was added to the State Heritage Register this week.

Wee Waa Local Aboriginal Lands Council (LALC) CEO Robyn Keeffe said it was a "very emotional" moment to finally achieve the decade-long objective.

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"I think it's very significant [in Australian history] in the fact that people did it and got away with it. It's now acknowledged that it did happen, because I don't think before anyone wanted to go there to acknowledge what's happened in the past. I think it's a major step in the reconciliation process, for them to acknowledge that this did happen," she said.

Waterloo Creek is the second massacre site in the immediate area to achieve protection. The Myall Creek massacre site has been protected from development since 2008 and now boasts a memorial.

Mrs Keeffe said the LALC will now take over the site from NSW Crown Lands in order to preserve it, she said.

"It's very eerie. You can definitely feel something there. It's a quiet place. It's back off a heavy vehicle road, that farmers use a lot, so it's in a really quiet spot" she said.

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Protection paves the way for more formal commemoration, but that will only take place after a long process of consultation with Indigenous descendants and others, Mrs Keeffe said.

"We've been waiting on this a long time, so we want to get it right," she said.

"It's not ours, it's for all Aboriginal people - they own it, not us. It's not just our LALC, it's there for all Aboriginal people to be able to be part of it. It is a huge honour."

Mrs Keeffe said the Waterloo Creek site is not the last unprotected massacre in the New England North West. She hopes they will one day all be heritage listed - and she hopes to be able to invite schoolchildren to the Waterloo Creek site to learn about the country's history.

Unlike the later Myall Creek massacre, which also took place in 1838, none of the perpetrators of the Waterloo Creek massacre, including its leader, Major James Nunn, were ever prosecuted.

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