Palmer's $4.6m gift to wife 'hardly wild'

Clive Palmer's multi-million dollar gifts to his wife and her family were "hardly a wild" way to distribute his assets, his lawyer says.

Mr Palmer is on an overseas holiday as his lawyers attempt to unfreeze more than $500 million of his assets in the Brisbane appeal court on Thursday.

A court-ordered freeze on his assets in May included more than $200 million of the mining magnate's assets, taking in his Cessna plane, vintage cars and several properties.

It comes as liquidators attempt to claw back millions of dollars owed following the collapse of his Queensland Nickel refinery in Townsville in 2016.

About $343 million related to his business ventures were also frozen by Justice John Bond.

The appeal has heard Mr Palmer gave $4.6 million to his wife Anna and $600,000 to her brother from the sale of Mineralogy House in the CBD.

"Your Honour, this is hardly a wild dissipation of assets," Mr Palmer's barrister David Jackson QC told the court.

"He sold the property for 23-and-a-half million dollars and gave his wife 4.6 million. It wasn't a corporate matter. It was out of pocket."

The hearing comes three days after Mr Palmer was successful in having Justice Bond recused over potential perceived bias from the April 2019 trial against liquidators.