Sydney’s bear buddies found their new king at the weekend, after putting six hirsute contestants through their paces.

A packed-to-capacity crowd upstairs at the Oxford Hotel witnessed the Harbour City Bears show off their bearwear and fetishwear, smooch and bearhug, dance and answer the judges’ curly questions in their quest to represent New South Wales in Melbourne’s upcoming annual nationwide bear pageant during the Southern Hibearnation fest.

Same Same was on the judging panel and our fun photos are online now – check them out below.

All the contestants had their charms, but after the judges and audience votes were counted, the winner, pictured below, was hunky leather-loving businessman Alan Cadogan.

“It was a tough contest, but I had so much fun,” he told us in the moments after he took the famous Harbour City Bears sash for 2012. He’d come out a few years ago, and has the support of his family and young daughter – even joking that she’ll now tell her friends at school “my dad’s the bear king!”

“I’m completely stoked with winning Mr Harbour City Bear 2012,” he later told his Facebook fans on his new Mr Harbour City Bears page.

“I just want to say how much fun I had, and how much admiration I have for the other guys on stage – it was a privilege to be among such great company.”

An active member and supporter of the Harbour City Bears’ activities, Cadogan recently appeared in the bears’ safer partying campaign during Mardi Gras season:

The newly-sashed Harbour City Bears winner will head to Melbourne’s Southern Hibearnation fest next month, where he’ll compete for the opportunity to represent Australasia in global bear events. Good luck Alan!