Manufacturing furniture was among the most important economic activities for Chinese migrants and their descendants in Australia following the gold rushes of the 1850s and 1860s. This paper looks at the means and methods by which furniture was made. Chinese overseas businesses have regularly been described as drawing primarily, or exclusively, on Chinese supply networks for materials, goods and knowledge. I demonstrate in this paper, however, that furniture manufacturers operating within Australia only rarely drew on these networks. I consider manufacturers’ premises, the materials and tools used in their factories, and the designs and processes employed in furniture production. I show that Chinese manufacturers depended almost entirely on non-Chinese individuals and organisations to meet their needs in all of these respects. This challenges common notions about Chinese overseas enterprise, and about the nature of ‘White Australia’.