Much has been written about Chinese merchants in the late eighteenth-early nineteenth centuries and their significant role in global trade and as organisers and representatives of Chinese communities. Historians have of late given greater attention to the female members of Chinese merchants’ families, many of whom became businesswomen or even merchants.

Little has been written about the history of Chinese businesswomen in Queensland. I present a biographical sketch of Jessie Tam Sie, the Australian-born part-Chinese second wife of Innisfail-based merchant Tam Sie.