A second style, Cross-Hatching and X-ray, evolved in the Northern Territories and Arnhemland. This style originates in the rock drawings and drawings on bark. Typical of this style is the rendering of recognisable forms, such as animals, filled with a striped pattern. This pattern is typical to a certain tribe, or evoces the relation of a tribe with its ancestors.

Another typical subject are the 'Mimi-spirits'. These are tiny beings that shelter in grottos, and only come out in the days without wind. They are benevolent spirits. According to the Aboriginees, the Mimi's thought them their hunting techniques. Often Mimi-spirits are rendered with arms, and in a family-group, on a hunting trip.

The background of the paintings renders the rocks. Sometimes handprints were made by taking paint in the mouth, and spraying it over a hand put flat on the rock. Exactly the same technique was used some 20.000 years ago in Lascaux (France) and Altamira (Spain).

Typical for the X-.ray style is the rendering of the skeleton (or parts of it) and the entrails. The purpose of this is to accentuate the fact that there is more than meets the eye. There is, besides the exterior, also a hidden, internal truth.