Police searched David Mackennal's devices in September 2023 and found messages sent to four girls, aged between 14 and 17, from 2022.
He had requested child abuse material and sent the Filipina girls money but told police he never received any photos.
Mackennal, from Benalla in regional Victoria, also messaged an adult man from the Philippines in 2016 and 2017, requesting he procure children to engage in sexual acts on video.
He told police he was trying to help the children and that while the man offered to send him videos of young girls, his preference was for those in their late teens.
Victorian County Court Judge Anne Hassan on Friday described the offending as highly depraved and callous as she jailed Mackennal for six years.
The children were vulnerable as they were living in unprotected and impoverished circumstances in the Philippines, she said.
The judge accepted Mackennal had shown some remorse through his guilty plea but said he was still minimising his crimes and claiming he was being altruistic.
His inability to appreciate the gravity and wrongfulness of his actions showed his moral culpability was high, Judge Hassan said.
But she accepted he was a 66-year-old man with no prior convictions and he had not re-offended since he was first charged.
He was jailed for six years but he will be eligible for parole after three years and 10 months.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
Lifeline 13 11 14
Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800 (for people aged 5 to 25)
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