church. The Gordonvale parish of the Roman Catholic Vicariate Apostolic of Cooktown (now the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cairns) was established in 1935. Cane toads (Bufo marinus) were deliberately introduced into Australia in an attempt to control the native Frenchi beetle (Lepidiota frenchi) and the greyback cane beetle (Dermolepida albohirtum) whose larvae (colloquially known as "cane grubs") were destroying sugar cane crops in North Queensland. In June 1935 the Queensland Bureau of Sugar Experiment Stations imported 102 cane toads (Bufo marinus) into Gordonvale from Hawaii in June 1935 (with one dying in transit due to dehydration) in the belief that the toads would eat the cane beetles, a pest in the sugarcane industry. By March 1937 some 62,000 toadlets had been bred and distributed into sugar cane fields up and down the Queensland coast. The experiment did not work and the toads have spread throughout much of Australia. During World War II, a contingent of approximately 3,000 American paratroopers was stationed in Gordonvale and did their training there for their missions in New Guinea. The American Army commandeered some of the town's hotels to use as hospitals as many troops were injured during this training. Quite a number of local women were employed to do parachute packing. The first Gordonvale Fire Station opened in 1950 at 105 Norman Street (). The new Gordonvale Fire Station on Gillies Range Road was completed in 2017. The new site was chosen to provide better access to both the Bruce Highway and the Gillies Highway. The Gordonvale Library opened on 19 February 1954, replacing the old School of Arts which was built in 1900. All Saints' Anglican Church was consecrate on 14 June 1963 by Anglican Bishop of North Queensland Ian Shevill and Anglican Archbishop of Sydney Hugh Gough. It was designed by Cairns architects Sidney George Barnes and Edwin Oribin. On 26 October 1964 Senior Constable Desmond Trannore was shot attending a domestic disturbance. In the 1990s, a number of mosaics were commissioned by the "Friends of Gordonvale" commemorating through imagery the original businesses and shops in the town. These mosaics were cemented permanently within the footpaths directly outside the original sites of the businesses. Gordonvale was located within the Shire of Mulgrave until its amalgamation with the City of Cairns in 1995. The City was subsequently merged into the larger Cairns Region in 2008. In 2012, the new Gordonvale Ambulance Station opened.