Sydney, Sep 17 (DPA) An Australian kept his daughter as a sex slave for 30 years and fathered her four children in the Melbourne house he shared with his wife, the Herald Sun newspaper reported Thursday.

The case has clear parallels with Austrian Josef Fritzl, who was jailed for life earlier this year for keeping his daughter prisoner in a cellar and fathering her seven children over 24 years of sexual abuse.

The alleged Australian rapist was charged in February after his daughter, now in her 40s, reported to police.

It was claimed the man held the victim in sway by threatening violence against her mother and siblings when the rapes started at age 11.

The wife claimed to be unaware of any abuse, despite sharing a house with her daughter, husband and grandchildren until 2005.

Child welfare advocates have called for an inquiry into why authorities didn't spot the abuse despite being involved in the welfare of the family for decades.

Three of the man's children with his wife died - two of cot death and another by drowning - while the surviving children were understood to have spent periods in the care of the state.