I live in a Victorian town of similar size. Houses have mains gas even when they don't have sewage, and it has been this way at least 30 years. I'm guessing the mains gas didn't get to your town. I've visited houses further afield who use bottled gas, and the gas delivery truck is a not uncommon site. But I imagine usage has plummeted and more people getting themselves disconnected to avoid the connection fees, with solar visible on roughly half the roofs.
A lot of regional towns don't have mains gas so had to rely on deliveries. Living in outer Melbourne, I've always had gas, same with my friends and neighbours, and have always had gas hot water, stove top and heating, it's been the main heat source all my life, going away now with new builds not allowing gas connections, never mind if we have another massive electricity outage like 2022 when we were lucky to have gas for cooking and hot water, good luck charging batteries off solar in winter in a blackout if you're lucky enough to have proper blackout protection.
