Dont know much about Warnervale but I have a mate who got his PPL there and he now flies there on a semi-regular basis. He seemed to indicate that it was a OK flying school (and by that I mean nothing special, not great but not bad either). I am assuming that you have been in and talked to the people at the airport. I think your best bet to start off with is to go around to the different airports (bankstown, warnervale, maitland, cessnock) if you havent already and see for yourself what you think of the facilities. HVA at Cessnock is owned by Basair which is a good flying school with a good reputation (its very clear however that they are orientated towards getting your money. they wont credit you with any hours if you go to them after having done training elsewhere for various reasons, bs! the examples go on and on....). Royal Newcastle Aero Club at Maitland has a long history and has good facilities. Their training is excellent (Russ Evans is closely tied to the club). The only downfall is that they are a bit unorganised, however; the general manager changed a while ago and now its running a lot better. I heard through the grapevine also that they were looking at changing a building there into accomodation, so it would be possible for you to go up for the weekend or days at a time and train rather than drive up for a lesson. I dont know much about the training facilities at Bankstown, they seem to change so rapidly. Clamback and Hennesey would be good, they are good operators although I can only tell you that from reputation. I couldnt tell you anything else about the other schools at Bankstown though. To be completely honest, I would give Royal Newcastle a go. I hope this has helped you anyway, good luck with your flying!