What happens when a gas company abandons an entire city?

Restaurateur Les Palmer says shutting the gas supply would cripple his business. (ABC News: Daniel Mercer)

In the expanse of his restaurant's kitchen, Les Palmer fixes a trained eye on the grill.

It's midday, and he's overseeing the lunchtime service, as he's done so many times over more than two decades as a chef and business owner in the hospitality game.

"Collectively, in hospitality, I've been there for 26 years now," says Palmer, who owns and runs a steakhouse in Albany on Western Australia's south coast.

This time, Palmer is cooking a couple of prized steaks and some chicken over flames, but it can be much more than that at other mealtimes.

During busy periods, each of the 16 burners can be roaring as the kitchen tries to feed hungry diners packing into the restaurant.

"There's lots of stove tops, the char grill, the hot water system, the deep fryers.

It's a business, and a business model, which Palmer says is now under threat.

About 40,000 people live in Albany on Western Australia's south coast. (ABC News)

Earlier this year, the company that owns Albany's gas pipelines abruptly announced it was shutting the asset and leaving town.

Customers would have, at most, three years to make alternative plans for switching to bottled gas or electrifying their properties.

Either way, though, Canadian infrastructure firm ATCO would not be hanging around.

The decision has rocked a town of almost 40,000 people, left the state government scrambling and raised questions about who should pay for the transition away from gas.

Last month, think tank the Grattan Institute highlighted this tension in a report that said Australians generally were using less gas and governments needed to plan for the decline.

"Without action, gas use will continue to decline, but the process will be costly, chaotic, and inequitable," the institute argued in its report titled Out of Gas.

Greg Stocks is Albany's mayor and he, for one, says the precedent set by ATCO and its treatment of the town is a sobering one for consumers and taxpayers.

"I think people on gas networks need to be really cognisant of what's happening and watch very closely what's happening in Albany," Stocks says.

WA's energy minister says gas companies like ATCO have to mind their social licence. (ABC News: Dan Mercer)

While ATCO has subsequently said it would delay the decommissioning for a few months until the beginning of next year, and shut down the city centre last, the decision is still shocking to Palmer.

The first he heard about it, he says, was from a journalist following up on a media relea