Assessing vehicle damage just off photos?

My car ran over a dead roo the other night, tore off lots of under panel things and dinted others. I promptly rang NRMA, put in the claim over the phone and was given an appointment at the repairers for assessment. Turned up at appointed time, receptionist asked for keys, went outside and took a few photos, came back and told me she was all done and I'd get a quote in 10-15 days. I admit I was so flabberghasted I didn't say anything more, but really WTF? How do I know if my car is even roadworthy? Just because it's drivable, maybe something will break if I keep using it? I haven't had a claim for maybe 15 years, and that was only panel damage, but we always got assessed within a couple of days, and fixed within a couple weeks. We even had a car written off back in the 90s and were driving our replacement car less than 72 hours after the accident.

Is this normal now? How do they assess the damage from just photos? It was the NRMA recommended repair place, I thought I'd get better service than that. If I take to another place to get it assessed for if it's safe to drive, can I claim that cost back from insurer? Or if the other place does some emergency repairs so I can continue to drive? This just seems a crazy way to operate.