Aims and objectives To investigate burnout among nurses from Australia and China and explore the effects of resilience and turnover intention on nurse burnout between the two countries. Background Nursing shortages and burnout have become serious problems worldwide in recent years. In both developed and developing countries, such as Australia and China, nurse burnout levels are high and therefore attract concern from nurse managers, hospital administrators, nurse educators and researchers. However, few studies have been conducted exploring the differences in burnout and its predictors between Australian and Chinese nurses, particularly investigating the differences in the effect sizes of the predictors. Design A comparative cross‐sectional design was employed. Methods A total of 100 Australian nurses and 197 Chinese nurses participated in the study. Australian participants completed an online questionnaire, while Chinese participants completed a hardcopy questionnaire. Burnout, resilience and turnover intention were measured. Results Burnout was worse for Australian participants than Chinese participants. Only having turnover intention significantly predicted burnout in Australian participants, while low resilience, having turnover intention and low level of regular exercise strongly predicted burnout in Chinese participants. The effect size of turnover intention on burnout in the Australian group was almost twice that of the Chinese group. Conclusion The findings of this study show that there are differences in burnout between Australian and Chinese nurses. The effects of resilience and turnover intention on burnout between the two groups are also identified. Relevance to clinical practice The differences in nurse burnout and the effects of resilience and turnover intention on burnout should be better understood by nurse managers from Australia and China. Moreover, developing effective strategies relevant to their own country to reduce nurse burnout is recommended.