Where "Stickybeak" Comes From
"Stickybeak" is a genuine Australian original, first documented in a poem published in Sydney's Evening News on 17 October 1914 — describing an inquisitive person's nose rather than the person themselves. Within a few years the word had shifted from describing the nose to describing the whole nosy individual, appearing across Victorian newspapers by 1917.
By 1920, "Smith's Weekly" was using "sticky-beaking" as a verb — someone nosily poking around, in that case checking up on book prices — completing its journey from a single body part to a full description of prying behaviour, entirely homegrown in Australian newspapers of the WWI era.
Source:
"Don't be a stickybeak - it's none of your business."
How Aussies Actually Use It
A gently disapproving way to call someone out for nosiness — "don't be a stickybeak, it's none of your business" is a common line from parents to curious kids, and between adults too.
It can also be used as a verb, as in "having a stickybeak," meaning to have a nosy look around out of curiosity.
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