For most city-dwellers it is inconceivable to imagine a whole town completely wiped out by fire.

But that is what has happened to the tiny, 125-year-old mill town of Yarloop, 130 kilometres south of Perth.

A bushfire has devastated the south-western town of Yarloop in West Australia. Credit:Murray Cowper

The fire which swept through the south-west town on Friday morning all but levelled every building. The local pub is gone, the police station, railway station, the Heritage-listed Yarloop Workshops and 95 homes have all been destroyed in the town of about 500 residents.

Only a handful of buildings were left standing.