Shoot through

Means to leave abruptly. But in my whole life never heard it. can I dismiss it as almost exclusively Aussie

Don't know Dale. A lot of our expressions and slang are based on our convict and working class Anglo-Irish start - but that one might be just one of ours. I guess if the Poms disagree, then I'll know I'm wrong. But it certainly is a reasonably common term here.

Now that you raise it, I wonder how it started? --GODDESS

Only place I ever heard that phrase was in the song Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport.