The appeal of convicted child killer ROBERT FARQUHARSON has been told he is a gentle person who loved his children and had a ‘cordial’ relationship with his ex-wife Cindy Gambino.

Farquharson’s lawyer Peter Morrissey, SC, has told the Victorian Court of Appeal his client had accidentally killed his sons Jai, 10, Tyler, 7, and Bailey, 2, when he drove them into a dam near Winchelsea on Father’s Day 2005.

Mr Morrissey said evidence given by Greg King, a friend of Farquharson, at his trial in 2010 was inconsistent and should not be relied upon.

Mr King told the 2010 trial Farquharson had told him he would pay his ex-wife back.

But Mr Morrissey said that at the time of the children’s death Farquharson’s relationship with his ex-wife was cordial, he was planning on buying a house near Ms Gambino and his work was going well.

"The people who really knew Farquharson ... all of them had nothing but praise for his attitude to Cindy," Mr Morrissey told the court.

Farquharson was convicted of murdering his three sons in 2007 and was sentenced to life without parole, but was later granted a retrial.

In 2010 he was again sentenced to life but with a non-parole period of 33 years.