The man began abusing his wife verbally and punched her in the back of the head twice. She went into a bedroom and he followed.
The man swept everything off the dressing table and threw her cellphone out of the window and then grabbed her around the neck.
"You seized her around her throat ... you squeezed her neck hard and asked her whether she wanted to live."
When she said yes, he let go. Her neck was sprained in the assault.
Judge Grace said the woman had felt fear and hurt after the attack. "She was devastated, frightened, extremely vulnerable ... she was constantly checking the security of the property."
The man's lawyer, Virginia Pearson, said he had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity.
"This offending was completely out of character ... he just snapped."
The wife had said there was "an element of provocation".
Judge Grace said the wife no longer sought a protection order and had come to the realisation her husband had a depressive illness as well as a physical illness.
But the assault involved serious violence, he said.
"It had the potential to be quite lethal."
He sentenced the man on both charges, to seven months' home detention with special conditions, including to undertake drug and alcohol and domestic violence counselling assessments, and to undertake any treatment or counselling as directed by probation officers.
Names and identifying details have been suppressed.
