Korda, who won the 2012 Australian Open, made the perfect start to the tournament at Royal Pines on the Gold Coast, carding a five-under-par round of 68.
The 20-year-old looked set to have sole ownership of the lead until Burnett blitzed the second half of her round with five birdies to snatch a share of the lead.
"Yeah, I actually hit my driver quite well today and I only missed one really really bad shot, but I got away with it and ended up making birdie," Korda said
"But I'm just taking every shot as it is, if I hit it upward to the right, I hit it up to the right. I need to figure out why I did that and try and put that to the next shot. I'm learning how to figure out this swing that I have, but I like what's going on right now."
The duo are one shot clear of American Cheyenne Woods, Frenchwoman Valentine Derrey, Canadian Lorie Kane and South African duo Lee-anne Pace Stacy Lee Bregman.
Australians Kristie Smith, Sarah Kemp, Rebecca Artis and amateur Minjee Lee are all in the mix at three-under, alongside the Netherlands Dewi-Claire Schreefel , Denmark's Line Vedel and China's Yu Yang Zhang in a share of eighth.
Defending champion Karrie Webb will need to improve dramatically to make the cut after she could manage a one-over 74 to be in a tie for 59th place.