Michael Gerald Bickerton Coultas, fondly known as Pop to his family was born on 20th July 1931 and passed away on 10th August 2021.
Michael saw life as an adventure and he lived his 90 years to the fullest and he had many favourite expressions and two notable quotes were: ‘how ever wonderful the present is- the best is yet to come’ and ‘we’re on our way and we’re not looking back’.
He had numerous passions and he loved gardening and creating an oasis for butterflies and had a great affection for frogs. Another of his passions was cars and was involved in many car clubs. Michael was also a dedicated walker and mountain climber and proudly climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. He was fascinated by history and explorers, particularly Portuguese and Spanish explorers and he taught a U3A class on his subject of expertise sharing his knowledge with others. He had a great love of poetry and storytelling and was fond of impromptu recitations and Banjo Patterson’s ‘Clancy of the Overflow’ was one of his favourites, along with stories of jackarooing.
Michael was born in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and lived on a tea estate in Nuwara Eliya with his family and over the years he travelled back to Sri Lanka many times, working as a volunteer and sponsoring a number of important projects. He was an extremely keen traveller and in his role as Trade Commissioner he was able to travel the world and he was always proudly Australian.
Michael was an avid Hawks supporter and thoroughly enjoyed taking his children and grandchildren to matches over the years and his family was incredibly important to him. He adored music and the arts and particularly traditional jazz and gospel music.
He had a deep sense of purpose and positive enthusiasm and respectful and polite nature. Michael was a philanthropist and a loyal Rotarian and was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for his leadership and guidance.
Michael joined Beaumaris Players, as we were then known, in the 1950’s when he met founding member, Bill Martin. Michael was in the cast of several plays staged at Talbot House, in Cromer Road Beaumaris. When interviewed in 2013 for our 60th anniversary he described the ‘magnificent mansion’ which ‘was a wonderful place to meet, especially on Sunday’s, and it was like a big family.’ He was Treasurer of the club and appeared in the production “As Long as They’re Happy” which was the inaugural performance at our theatre in Wells Road, in 1958.
He was awarded Life Membership in 2003 in our 50th Anniversary year and was incredibly proud of the honour and enthusiastically attended most of our productions over the years with his lovely wife Judy.
Michael was a remarkable, charismatic, charming man and a gentleman in every sense of the word and he showed genuine interest in everyone he met and he most certainly lived his best life and is an inspiration to us all.
Our heartfelt condolences to Judy and the entire Coultas family and he will be sadly missed.