Diary tells of WWII internment in Australia

What's believed to be the first publication of a World War Two internment camp diary has made its debut in Adelaide.

What's believed to be the first publication of an internment camp diary has made its debut in Adelaide - and its creator says it has parallels with the immigration detention stories of today.

During the Second World War, more than 4,800 Australian residents of Italian origin - a fifth of the nation's Italian population - were interned under the National Security Act.

Mario Sardi, an immigrant from the Isle of Elba, recorded his 21 months of internment in the Loveday Internment Camp in South Australia, the nation's largest such detention facility.

That diary has now been translated from Italian to English by La Trobe University researcher Ilma Martinuzzi O'Brien.

Dr Martinuzzi O'Brien told Karen Ashford the story of citizens detained without trial for years because of their race is little different from the asylum seeker situation today.

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