Health partnerships have become commonplace in Australia following the introduction of mandatory partnering by Australian state and federal governments since the late 1980s. However, very little is known about how they actually perform as partnerships. This study describes the emergence of an Australian community-based health promoting partnership known as the Logan-Beaudesert Health Coalition (LBHC). The LBHC was a response by Queensland’s state government in 2005 to the increased incidence and prevalence of chronic disease in the peri-urban regions of Logan and Beaudesert, which are characterised by their cultural diversity and socio-economic disadvantage. This qualitative study contributes to health partnership research empirically, methodologically and theoretically. Alternative epistemologies and a new methodological approach are introduced under the rubric of critical social science. These were used to generate new descriptions and diagnoses of how the LBHC was being performed as a partnership. A literature review was conducted to examine what was already known about health partnerships. Studies of health partnerships were reported as being too data driven, undertheorised and more generally, as lacking empirical evidence and critical appraisal of health partnerships. Most studies asked, “Are health partnerships successful?” relatively few asked, “How are they performed as partnerships?” A review of the health partnership also revealed limited exploration of alternative methodologies and methods such as governmentality and ANT, which have the potential to enhance understanding of how health partnerships are performed as partnerships.