The earliest recorded role of the area around Bahau is as a town along the "
Denai Penarikan", a water-land route through the interior of Peninsular Malaysia, linking
Muar,
Johor in the
west coast, to
Pekan,
Pahang in the
east coast. The "Denai Penarikan" or the "Pulling
Portage" is a land route where merchants would pull their boats across the land from
Sungai Muar which flows westwards to Sungai Serting which flows eastwards. The town did not flourish until the arrival of Chinese settlers moving inland in search of tin ore. The Chinese settlers established the town of Bahau and nearby Mahsan, and the town grew as the rubber,
palm oil and timber trade (fading industry) began to dominate the town's economy. During the
Second World War, preparations were made to evacuate people from
Singapore to
Johor and
Negeri Sembilan. Singapore was then overcrowded and the food situation critical. Eurasian emigrants were brought to Bahau after the success in bringing the Chinese to
Endau. However, malaria proved to a constant scourge, and the emigrants discovered that the area had not been adequately prepared for their arrival. The Syonan-to government could not extend to Bahau the same assistance given to Endau because the former became the Negeri Sembilan authorities' responsibility. The residents here also enjoyed less freedom than their counterparts in Endau. Three hundred Eurasian families and 400 Chinese catholic families left Syonan for Bahau. Many could not adjust to the hard life as pioneers in an agricultural colony. Catholic nuns and the orphans in their care were reduced to eating a stew made from snail and grass. A high death rate claimed many, including the leader of the project, Bishop Devals. The project at Bahau came to an end when the Allied Southeast Asia Command dropped supplies of food and medicine. Bahau was classified as a "displaced person's camp", and the majority of its inmates were temporarily transferred to Sime Road Camp in Singapore by the British. ==Demographics==