gsx,
The 6 months was for issue of an ASIC - Airside Identity Card - which is required if you're going to any airport that has RPT. Bankstown and Hoxton Park don't fall under this category, but a lot of airports that you might want to fly to do. There was a fairly active thread about them over on the D&G forum but all seems to have gone quiet now. Anyways, you can probably get away without one, it just means some of your more interesting flying destinations (Canberra for example) will be out of bounds. Have a word with schools, see what the situation is.
Basair were helping me out with CPL-targeted hours building - my instructor would set me "commercial" tasks, with a route and objectives, only given to me an hour prior to departure so I had to really sharpen up on flight planning & weather decisions.
A couple of schools at Hoxton Park - I don't know anything about them though:
http://www.phoenix.org.au
http://www.mcivers.com.au
It's not too far from Bankstown if you have your own transport.
Very jealous, wish I was heading back there!
- in fact I still might to finish off my CPL hours...
Neil