NSW bushfires: Atomic 6 founder Andrew Lennox blamed Covid as clients stranded in sheds, pods and shipping containers

An unlicensed property entrepreneur who sold fire-resistant homes to victims of the Black Summer bushfires blamed Covid-19 for delays in the delivery, and has since vanished.

Atomic 6 director Andrew Lennox. ‘Heaps was resolved and we are ready to fly.’ Source: YouTube

An unlicensed property entrepreneur who sold fire-resistant homes to victims of the Black Summer bushfires blamed Covid-19 for ­delays in the delivery of the prefabricated modular houses to the NSW south coast.

Atomic 6 founder Andrew Lennox, 45, had made big promises to clients who had just lost everything in catastrophic bushfires in 2019 and 2020 and in return pocketed their insurance payouts.

Then Covid-19 hit, shutting borders, stopping industry and throwing a spanner in the works of Mr Lennox, who was trying to run factories in the outer Melbourne suburb of Campbellfield and NSW south coast town of Moruya.

The for lease Campbellfield warehouse in Victoria. Picture: Supplied

By the time Mr Lennox hit send on an email to clients on November 5, 2020, Melbourne had suffered through a 112-day lockdown and a second wave that claimed the lives of about 800 Victorians.

“The reality is that 2020 is and has been f..ked … But we are ‘smashing it’, we are relentless, determined along with that pinch of stupid,” he said.

More than 3½ years after the devastation of the Black Summer bushfires, customers of Atomic 6 are still living in sheds and shipping containers after handing over their insurance payouts to Mr Lennox.

Anglicare is assisting 31 victims across the Bega Valley and Eurobodalla shires in NSW who claim to have collectively paid Atomic 6 about $1.65m.

Mr Lennox has vanished and a $36,000 unpaid debt to engineering firm Stantec for work on the south coast homes sent Atomic 6 into liquidation in July this year.

Liquidator Hall and Chadwick said no assets belonging to Atomic 6 had so far been identified and the company was yet to provide any books or records. “Mr Lennox has not responded to any of the liquidator’s correspondence to date,” a spokesman said.

“As the liquidator has not been provided with any company records, we are only aware of six creditors being owed approximately $283,000.”

Yet in 2021, Atomic 6 told the company’s clients that its fortunes were turning around.

“We are aiming to have all floor components on a truck heading for NSW in about two weeks in anticipation of a quick delivery and installation onsite,” said an employee in an email on April 23, 2021.

Things soon started to go south again, however, and by June Mr Lennox was complaining to a client of stress and tensions inside the Moruya warehouse.

“We have had politics and shit up here in Moruya that has made what should be a really exciting time quite disappointing,” he said.

“It‘s pretty much fixed now but the stress and damage done is wasted time and energy … This week has been good again.

“Heaps was resolved and we are ready to fly.”

Outside the Atomic 6 warehouse in Moruya. Picture: Remy Varga

It was around this time Mr Lennox started living in the ­Moruya warehouse and one person recalled him hiding when the landlord visited, getting down on the ground and lurking behind machinery.

John Nader, the landlord, said Mr Lennox owed him about $80,000 and had ripped off the floor coverings and left half-built partitions inside the warehouse.

“He said all the right things, made all the right promises but ­financially he couldn’t keep up,” he said.

Down in Melbourne, Mr Len­nox stopped paying rent at the Atomic 6 factory in the northern suburb of Campbellfield and owes the landlord about $133,000.

Photographs included in an online listing show a teal warehouse emblazoned with the Atomic 6 logo while inside the building are abandoned tables and chairs.

Most of the company’s clients are still living in temporary accommodation. Neither they nor Mr Lennox’s creditors have been able to reach him. He did not respond to a request for comment.