There are reasons to believe that the utility of geographic information systems (GIS) for natural hazard risk and disaster management will expand as spatial databases become more widely available, the cost of software decreases and as risk managers acquire GIS expertise. It is also likely that GIS use will extend beyond mapping, towards a richer use of its spatial analytical capabilities. Invariably, risk managers will also demand access to decision support tools that allow them to manage and understand the complicated nature of disaster. It is likely that GIS-based risk and disaster management will become a feature of state and localgovernment’s natural hazard risk management procedures. This is already occurring in Australia as corporate GIS databases developed initially to manage land records, property values, planning and zoning regulations and other administrative tasks are being extended to accommodate natural hazard risk management needs. This paper examines the application and integration of GIS for storm surge risk management and disaster decision making. The study focuses on observations from a real-time emergency management disaster scenario held in Mackay in far north Queensland, Australia. In addition to a range of other disaster risk management objectives such as testing vehicle response times, communication infrastructures and evaluating disaster plans, the scenario aimed to assess the utility of GIS for real-time risk decision making. Results from scenario observations and post-scenario interviews with risk managers highlight the limitations of this technology for real-time applications, and disaster management in particular. The research, however, shows that real-time disaster applications of GIS have very specific requirements which are significantly different from long-term decision making for disaster planning. These requirements are examined in detail as the lessons learnt may be valuable for other disaster management planning utilising GIS. Finally, the paper examines non-technical GIS implementation issues that have arisen from the Mackay scenario as these may be a greater barrier to GIS-based disaster management than technical issues of software, hardware and spatially explicit modelling.