The man will serve a non-parole period of eight months.

Bendigo County Court judge Paul Lacava denied the man's appeal against a jail sentence on Monday and placed him on the Sex Offenders' Register for life.

The offender's name has been withheld to avoid identifying the victim.

The man, who has lived and worked in Bendigo for most of his life before moving to a central Victorian town, pleaded guilty to two charges of unlawful and indecent assault of his daughter.

The court heard the man intermittently sexually abused his daughter, then aged under 10, during a 15-month period between 1956 and 1957.

The man was aged in his mid-20s when the offences took place.

The second charge referred to sexual abuse of his daughter between 1959 and 1962.

A victim impact statement from the daughter tendered to the court outlined the psychological harm caused by the abuse.

The court heard the daughter had later lived with the man for a 14-year period.

The man handed himself in to police in December 2012 after conversations with family members and made full admissions to the offences.

At the appeal hearing on Monday, defence counsel Kate Youngson detailed the man's early life in which he was regularly sexually abused by a cousin.

She said the nature of the abuse was similar to the abuse the man later carried out on his own daughter.

He was also subjected to physical and emotional abuse from his father - a World War One veteran - from a young age.

The man was then placed in the care of the Salvation Army, where he was also subjected to psychological abuse.

Ms Youngson said a reduced sentence would be appropriate given the man's age, his full admissions to the charges and the guilty plea.

She outlined his service to the Bendigo community throughout his life, including both paid and voluntary work, as examples of his good nature.

He had established himself as a successful business owner.

Ms Youngson said the man regularly stated the nature of his offending was "normal" given his experiences from his childhood.

Crown prosecutor David O'Doherty said the guilty plea was a mitigating factor.

He said it did not eliminate the seriousness of the offending, which represented a breach of trust and was predatory in nature.

The court heard the man was in good health for his age.

Judge Paul Lacava said had the man not pleaded guilty, the sentence would have been two and a half years.

"There is an issue that the man will find it harder than most to cope with a jail term because of his age," he said.

"However on balance, I am of the view that the sentence imposed was appropriate in the circumstances."

Mr Lacava said the seriousness of the offending could not be discounted.

"There was a large power imbalance in the relationship," he said.

"He used the power imbalance for his own sexual gratification."