diff --git a/django/contrib/gis/models.py b/django/contrib/gis/models.py
index 3231f926ff..d3e8dbdb83 100644
--- a/django/contrib/gis/models.py
+++ b/django/contrib/gis/models.py
@@ -211,9 +211,23 @@ class SpatialRefSysMixin(object):
 # The SpatialRefSys and GeometryColumns models
 _srid_info = True
 if settings.DATABASE_ENGINE == 'postgresql_psycopg2':
-    from django.contrib.gis.db.backend.postgis.models import GeometryColumns, SpatialRefSys
+    # Because the PostGIS version is checked when initializing the spatial 
+    # backend a `ProgrammingError` will be raised if the PostGIS tables 
+    # and functions are not installed.  We catch here so it won't be raised when 
+    # running the Django test suite.
+    from psycopg2 import ProgrammingError
+    try:
+        from django.contrib.gis.db.backend.postgis.models import GeometryColumns, SpatialRefSys
+    except ProgrammingError:
+        _srid_info = False
 elif settings.DATABASE_ENGINE == 'oracle':
-    from django.contrib.gis.db.backend.oracle.models import GeometryColumns, SpatialRefSys
+    # Same thing as above, except the GEOS library is attempted to be loaded for
+    # `BaseSpatialBackend`, and an exception will be raised during the
+    # Django test suite if it doesn't exist.
+    try:
+        from django.contrib.gis.db.backend.oracle.models import GeometryColumns, SpatialRefSys
+    except:
+        _srid_info = False
 else:
     _srid_info = False
 
diff --git a/django/contrib/gis/tests/__init__.py b/django/contrib/gis/tests/__init__.py
index 44465f4f23..9bf1ccd936 100644
--- a/django/contrib/gis/tests/__init__.py
+++ b/django/contrib/gis/tests/__init__.py
@@ -44,8 +44,13 @@ if HAS_GEOIP:
     if hasattr(settings, 'GEOIP_PATH'):
         test_suite_names.append('test_geoip')
 
-def suite():
-    "Builds a test suite for the GIS package."
+def geo_suite():
+    """
+    Builds a test suite for the GIS package.  This is not named
+    `suite` so it will not interfere with the Django test suite (since
+    spatial database tables are required to execute these tests on
+    some backends).
+    """
     s = TestSuite()
     for test_suite in test_suite_names:
         tsuite = getattr(__import__('django.contrib.gis.tests', globals(), locals(), [test_suite]),test_suite)
@@ -54,7 +59,7 @@ def suite():
 
 def run(verbosity=1):
     "Runs the tests that do not require geographic (GEOS, GDAL, etc.) models."
-    TextTestRunner(verbosity=verbosity).run(suite())
+    TextTestRunner(verbosity=verbosity).run(geo_suite())
 
 def run_tests(module_list, verbosity=1, interactive=True):
     """
@@ -105,7 +110,7 @@ def run_tests(module_list, verbosity=1, interactive=True):
 
     # Creating the test suite, adding the test models to INSTALLED_APPS, and
     #  adding the model test suites to our suite package.
-    test_suite = suite()
+    test_suite = geo_suite()
     for test_model in test_models:
         module_name = 'django.contrib.gis.tests.%s' % test_model
         if mysql: