I've already figured out the answer, but decided to post this as a Q+A here because this bothered me for ages and it took a long time to find the solution.
Hoping this will be of use to others (or even myself) in future...
Unable to browse network with Thunar.
OS: Debian XFCE (minimal network install)
Issue: Open Thunar and click "Network" -> error appears stating that operation is not supported