The "Nimmity Bell" may have claimed his leg, but three months on Howard Charles is in good spirits as the project nears its completion.
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In late July the 100-year-old "Nimmity Bell" fell onto the bell committee's coordinator, resulting in him being airlifted to Canberra and eventually requiring his lower leg to be amputated.
"It was unfortunate I had to be standing underneath it when it fell," Mr Charles said on Wednesday.
"But that's only a small chapter in the history of the bell.
"When a 1.5tonne bell drops on you, that's pretty serious I can tell you. But I'm coming good."
He said he will soon be getting a prosthetic fitted for his leg and then "hopefully everything will be as it was".
The bell was made in New York in 1920 and installed in Nimmitabel in June after a long campaign led by the town's Lions Club.
After its fall it was reinstalled in mid-September, had its clapper attached to it - now fully installed it weighs 1.8tonnes - and on Tuesday was given a test run.
"It sounds fantastic, it rings in G!" Nimmitabel Lions Club president John Harrington said.
"The automation is great too and it looks quite smart.
"I really feel the bell will bring so many people to this village."
He said the team is approaching the end of the five-year journey for the bell, as there is minor work to do around its base then the next step is to approach Snowy Monaro Regional Council to start the bell's six-month trial period of automatically ringing at midday.
Mr Harrington said Mr Charles was very resilient and was recovering well.
"It was a really unfortunate accident, it was just terrible," Mr Harrington said.
"But he's a tough old bugger and you can't dent his enthusiasm.
"I waited for him to hit the wall, but he hasn't."
Mr Charles, who has moved to Cooma after 70 years of living on farms around Nimmitabel, said his opinion of the bell has not changed since the accident.
"I think it's wonderful, I think it's beautiful," he said.
"It is a play on words, to have the 'Nimmity Bell'; there's no historical significance. But it's a lovely thing to have.
"In all the jobs I've been doing around there, every time I'm there I see people stopping to come and look at it."
On Wednesday, a spokesperson for SafeWork NSW confirmed SafeWork had completed its investigation into the incident in Nimmitabel.
"No further action will be taken, but SafeWork has monitored the project's completion," they said.