'I shouldn't have moved kids to Oz'

Asia (left), Jarius and Grace Osborne with their grandmother. Photo / Supplied

The distraught mother of three children shot dead by their father in Melbourne says she wishes she had never taken her children to Australia.

The bodies of Asia Osborne, 12, her brother Jarius, 10, and sister Grace, 7, were found at a north Melbourne home on Saturday afternoon.

Their father Raj Osborne was found dead beside them, apparently having killed his children before taking his own life, Australian police said.

Speaking to the Herald from Australia last night, the children's mother, who did not want to be named, said she regretted moving across the Tasman with her children and Mr Osborne - who she has been separated from for several years.

The family had lived in Hamilton and Dunedin for about five years, until 2004, when they moved to Australia.

"It should never have [happened]," she said. "I should never have brought them here - but how was I supposed to know?"

She said she was struggling to cope with her children's deaths, but particularly with how the tragedy unfolded.

"To be honest with you, I'm just lost and baffled ... it's just overwhelming and nothing that I do now will bring my children back."

Sighing heavily before continuing, she said she was absolutely "disgusted" with her former partner.

"I'm very angry with him. And to be honest with you, if a father can kill his children, he's not a father. He should have been there protecting them and not shoot them.

"So I don't feel anything for him. I don't feel any remorse, I don't feel any such thing towards him - I just hate him even more," she said.

She is now looking to bring her children's bodies to Taupiri, in the Waikato, to be buried with the children's younger sibling, Aroha, who died of cot death aged 8 months about five years ago.

But she said she would have to fight to have them brought to New Zealand, as her former partner's mother - the children's grandmother - wanted them to be buried in Australia.

"At the moment, my biggest priority is to get them home and to get them cleaned up and make sure that they go to where they belong and not in some strange country where they do not belong.

"I know that's my home country. I'm going to bring my babies home - that's where they belong. And I'm fighting to bring them home at the moment."

The children's mother, whose New Zealand family hails from Huntly and Hamilton, said her mother had travelled to be with her and was so far the only person there to support her.

She and her mother would be going to see her children for the first time soon, but could not say when exactly, as coroner and police investigations were continuing.

She thanked her family in New Zealand for the messages of support and paid tribute to her slain children.

"They were innocent little kids, they were very good children. I know they've gone to a place where they're all going to be safe and they're going to be happy and probably watching us," she said.