A file note seen by Fairfax Media records Ms Hilton telling one confidential informant earlier this year that "people were taking photographs of persons who were presenting at [Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission's] offices". The purpose, she said, was "intimidation".

Ms Hilton suspects she knows who was taking the photos, but Fairfax Media has declined to name the alleged perpetrator or perpetrators due to the lack of concrete proof.

Ms Hilton's highly sensitive report into both the metropolitan and country fire services was commissioned by former Andrews government minister Jane Garrett, but its publication has been blocked by Supreme Court action launched by the United Firefighters' Union. The union has challenged the report's data gathering methods, claiming they are open to manipulation.

The revelation of alleged surveillance comes after Opposition leader Matthew Guy on Wednesday called for a judicial review into sexual harassment and bullying in the Country Fire Authority and as several volunteer firefighters and other emergency services personnel told Fairfax Media of their improper treatment.

These reports follow revelations in The Age that bullying, harassment and intimidation were widespread within the CFA, as detailed in an internal report into the workplace culture produced by senior advisor Professor Caroline Taylor.

Professor Taylor revealed that she also became the target of bullying after completing her report, and is now on stress leave.

In one case, a female volunteer firefighter told how a male officer from her station "rubbed himself against me" during a training drill at the now abandoned CFA training college at Fiskville and, on another occasion shortly afterwards, pinned her against a shed wall and repeatedly tried to kiss her.

The woman lodged a complaint and the officer was stood down. The CFA investigation found insufficient evidence to support her allegations and the man has since been promoted to brigade captain. The woman left the CFA.

Fairfax Media has obtained secretly recorded tapes of meetings between CFA headquarters staff from the first half of this year in which the managers acknowledge the fire service has ongoing problems with the treatment of women.

The tapes include discussions about "hot spots" of harassment and bullying in regional CFA districts. On one recording, a female manager raises concerns about how in some regional districts "men are allowed to control their gaggle of girls like a rooster in a hen house".

In another recording, a male CFA staffer questions the extent to which the CFA executive is committed to genuinely reform the treatment of women.

"It's a boiling hot potato and a lot of it is to do with people protecting themselves rather than the organisation," the man states.

A manager can also be heard discussing the possibility that the CFA executive may engage in a public relations exercise in response to the VEOHRC report.

"If [CFA executive] is trying to cover our arse by looking like we are doing something ???our attempt to do something counts. Our attempt can be really half-arsed. It's an attempt all the same," the manager said.

The recordings also detail how a CFA employee in a relationship with a United Firefighters Union member called up female firefighters to ask if they had spoken to the commission. The calls were made after newspaper reports that women firefighters had made damning claims in statements to the commission.

The union has repeatedly denied any involvement in bullying or harassment and has highlighted the lack of any adverse finding against it in these areas.

Also on Wednesday, CFA chief officer Steve Warrington released a video on YouTube in which he expressed anger with this week's media reports about bullying and harassment.

"I won't cop our terrific organisation being dragged through the mud," he said.

Mr Warrington said the CFA had "turned the corner" and it was time to stop raking over the past.