A 70-year-old man has been charged with the murder of his neighbour, more than two years after a well-loved greyhound trainer in the Central West was killed in a deliberate explosion.

John Burrows, 58, was going about his daily routine at 6.30am on July 24, 2015, when he came upon a white backpack outside the garage behind his mother Phyllis' home in Portland.

The backpack was in fact a sophisticated improvised explosive device that detonated in his face and catapulted him several metres to the other side of the laneway.

The blast was so strong it blew out windows in surrounding homes, and could even be heard in the town of Wallerawang, five kilometres away.