Behind a locked gate on the edge of a rainforest, you'll find Dismal Swamp.
It's a place that's well and truly living up to its name: a 110-metre slide, which once attracted tourists to the site, is slowly falling into the sinkhole below.
When it opened in 2004, there were hopes it would be the heart of tourism in Tasmania's far north-west, but its operation was troubled and it has been left abandoned since 2019.
"We haven't really had any other significant investment in tourism infrastructure or tourism product," Circular Head Tourism Association president Clint Walker said.
"What we really need is a significant new [attraction], something that is going to draw visitors up to this part of the state."
Only around 10 per cent of visitors to Tasmania make it to the north-western corner and the region has been identified as missing out on the benefits that other parts of the state have experienced during its tourism boom.
"We've been banging on for years, trying to urge the government to come and work with us, so that we can try to improve our offerings and to grow our industry," Mr Walker said.
"We have tried our best to grow visitation and we just haven't been able to do it. We've been saying to those down Hobart way: 'It's our turn. What can we do?'."
It wasn't Hobart that answered those calls, but Canberra. The federal government has committed $12.5 million to encourage more visitors to the far north-west.
What is being proposed?
Most of the money will be used to completely revitalise the Dismal Swamp site and make it ready for a private investor.
The troubled slide will go, making way for a new adventure hub, featuring accommodation, an obstacle course, educational cinema, eateries and Aboriginal interpretation tours.
There are also plans to have an off-road training academy, to encourage tourists to use the area's four-wheel drive tracks respectfully and safely.
"The idea is to take make that site a hub where people will come and stay and explore the whole of the far north-west," Mr Walker said.
On a more-ambitious scale, a small amount of the funding will be used to further examine an idea to construct the world's first wave-breaker cave, taking advantage of the area's rugged coastline.
"If you can imagine a glass tunnel or, maybe, a room with a big glass wall that is just in the water, the waves would be coming in and breaking over the top of it," Mr Walker said.
"On a wild day, that would be pretty exhilarating."
It's unclear when the funding will flow but a spokesperson for Tasmania's Department of State Growth said the state government "understands that the region needs certainty around this project and is working as quickly as possible with the Australian government".
Mr Walker said the sooner the funding was available the better.
"If this falls over for some reason or another, I don't see how anything much is going to change in the near future to what we've had for the last 10 years," he said.
"We need this investment and, if we don't do something different, we are just going to keep getting the same results, so it's crucial."
Encouraging tourists to discover new areas a challenge
Another 30 minutes of driving and you'll arrive in the small town of Arthur River, described as the edge of the world — the sea west of here is the longest uninterrupted expanse of ocean on Earth.
Where the river meets the sea, you'll find the family-run operation at the Arthur River Cruises.
"It's remote, beautiful and wild. It's a great place to live, a great place to work and it's a great place to visit," deckhand Kaitlynn Voss-Powell said.
"We rely on tourists, so bringing more people to the area is nothing but positive."
Their biggest challenge is encouraging tourists to keep driving further west after they visit Stanley or Smithton, something the Dismal Swamp development is aimed at helping with.
"It is a bit of a double-edged sword, because we love it personally for its remoteness and quietness, but we also love sharing it with everybody," Ms Voss-Powell said.
The Edge of the World viewing platform in the town is soon to be upgraded, with hopes that will draw more people to the area in the short-term.
On the hill above Stanley, work is underway to future-proof the Highfield Historic Site.
"It's a very exciting project that will replace the existing roof at Highfield," Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service's Annita Waghorn said.
"It will provide protection for the building, going forward, for the next several decades."
They've already seen a shift towards an increasing number of visitors through the doors, with the historic site just experiencing a record year of visitors.
Ms Waghorn said they had been keen to share the benefits with the whole region.
"We are very keen to encourage people to extend their stay in the local area and to explore the other amazing places around the north-west," she said.
"When people make the journey up here, they find that it's not just one destination up here, there are remarkable places to visit all the way along the coast."
